Per Polygon, the only real big change in Franchise is the scouting system:

The other main change in NHL 19 comes in the series’ Franchise mode, which EA Vancouver upgraded last year with expansion teams. This time around, the studio has focused on the mode’s scouting setup, which fans have long criticized as too simplistic.

In NHL 19, you’ll have a separate scouting budget, and will have to hire and fire scouts with an eye on their regional specializations. For instance, one may be an expert in Russia and Scandinavia but may have a mediocre awareness of players elsewhere. Scouts will return detailed reports with graded attributes and text descriptions, and there’s a fog-of-war element: Any players to whom you don’t assign a scout will be blind spots, with no hints of their abilities. And if you draft someone you haven’t scouted, you still won’t see their ratings until they play a few games somewhere in your organization.

“It’s deep enough to be a standalone product,” said Ho of the new scouting system.

Unfortunately, that’s the only major improvement for Franchise. And it sounds like the only change for Be a Pro, the single-player career mode, is the addition of skill trees for traits akin to what’s available in FIFA. Here’s hoping Be a Pro — my personal favorite mode — gets some love next year.