I don't worry so much about Overalls as I do skill attributes.
I wish EA would have signature skills or styles and player tendencies...that's a whole other issue though
As an example though I don't care what Ovechkin's Overall is, but he's sure as **** going to have a big fat slap shot and be strong on the puck. Marner is going to have lots of skill and a higher overall offensive awareness and stick checking while I'd slightly lower his physical attributes.
Some people on here worry more about overalls instead of actual skill attributes, wrong way to go about it IMO
I often find that EA's speed and acceleration for skaters is jacked up though, Draisaitl, Horvat, Miles Wood, Rust and Sheary on the Pens, Byron in Montreal, there are loads of guys that need a boost.
I also go to hockeyfights dot com and edit the frequency of how often the league leaders in fights, fight. Same with hitting, the league leaders in hits will get a boost in aggression and body checking. Kadri as an example is a "never" fighter with high aggression and reasonable body checking, he doesn't destroy people very hit, but he does when he catches someone and he's always throwing them. Also his discipline goes down because he often gets emotional and starts taking runs at people...hitting people from behind and all sorts of old time hockey things. He stills takes "dumb" penalties...Clearly his defensive game has to go up a bit and so on...
I'll change player type as well if it calls for it. Chris Thorburn is more of an enforcer than a grinder...Michael Haley, Matt Martin, Martin is paid 2.5 million a year...to drop the gloves not to grind on the 4th line, they have an entire AHL team willing to never drop them and hit and forecheck.
Player positions will get changed as well, guys with 80+ faceoff ratings get moved to center because the majority of the time they are centers and playing on the wings...Jamie Benn is an example of a player who's a wing who can play center. Helm on Detroit goes back to the middle. Although I should check the faceoff stats to see if they are even up to date and relevant...
Some junior players get bumps, guys like Juolevi, his skating is NHL ready he's really smooth and handles the puck well...I don't worry about his overall in a situation like that, just that his puck skills and skating are whereabouts of where they should be. This is a tricky situation though as they develop they can become somewhat super fast or have a 99 power wrist shot...although that happens anyway with some prospects I am not trying to have more.
Older players will get a boost in awareness, Jagr of course, Iginla, they're situational awareness is high as a giraffe's balls, their legs just don't move as fast as they'd like. Some of these guys sadly and regrettably get a downgrade on their skating...someone like Shane Doan was never a burner to begin with just how she goes.
I also take players from the Euro leagues and a few from the national teams and drop them to free agency, and guys who's careers are over Bickell sadly or guys who've had post concussion problems for years now who are on the IR. Nathan Horton will never play again and doesn't county against the cap so bye bye.
I would have to go through the rosters to get more in depth but some guys are 20 and 30 goal scorers and have 82 shot accuracy...I have to look at how they get their goals and if they are dangling the pants off goalies or if they have a legit shot and normally they get slight boosts.
I also up the hand eye stats for the guys who lead the league in tipped pucks...Sometimes the real stats and the attributes don't match up...If someone is leading the league in tipped shots and has an 83 hand eye coordination attribute there is something a little off with that.