It would be nice if they made an effort to not conflict with the EU, but I don't want them to go out of their way and give up on good ideas just because they don't work within that construct. That's basically the way Star Trek does it, where the novels aren't technically canon, but, at least in recent years, the people making the movies and TV shows have generally tried not to invalidate them when they didn't have to. Some bits from the novels have actually become canon by being written into the shows and movies, like the first names of Kirk's parents in the recent movie.