EA boots top NHL producer

[UPDATE] Long-time NHL Hockey producer Dave Warfield no longer with the executive team.

EA Sports' NHL series producer Dave Warfield, based in EA' s Vancouver studio, has been sent to the showers. According to a post Warfield made to a popular online forum, the career move was forced upon him. In a post that went live Monday night, he stated, " I am no longer with EA."

The post appeared on the cyber-nhl.net forums, one of the largest hockey communities online, and reads in part, " To the guy that wanted me to get ' kicked in the balls' during the summit, your wish has been granted, and I am no longer with EA. I hope the new hockey regime will continue to solicit feedback and provide information as I have done in the past. My last act was to get the roster and attribute info to you, and with that I say farewell. I' ll check in to see what you think of the game, but you won' t see me here again, unless Sega hires me. Happy scoring and saving."

Warfield had been in charge of the series since 1997.

Electronic Arts updated GameSpot this afternoon on who would lead the franchise going forward. " With the launch of NHL 2005, some team changes were made. Ken Sayler, a long-time EA producer is returning to the NHL franchise. Most recently he was the producer on Tiger Woods PC. As a Canadian he is moving back home to Vancouver to lead the NHL team."

By Curt Feldman -- GameSpot