Rules

12 clubs · The Pints · The Pitchers · season 2026–27

The short version

Everything below is the fine print. The site enforces all of it, so reading it now beats finding out the hard way.

The league

Small enough to trash-talk everyone personally.

12 clubs, split into two divisions of 6: The Pints and The Pitchers. Always an even number, so nobody sits out a night because the math didn't work.
Every club gets a number from 1 to 12 at the draw. It's your draft slot, your place in the schedule and your playoff seed. Treat it with respect.
The regular season is 77 games, then 28 games of playoffs.

Not an NHL game — this pool's own. Learn this one and everything else makes sense.

A game is one to three NHL nights grouped together — a one-, two- or three-nighter. You play one opponent for the whole game, and whoever's players score more across those nights wins it.
Lineups lock at the first puck drop of the game's first night. Anything you change after that waits for the next game. Yes, even if you missed it by five minutes.

Always full. Every move is a swap.

6 forwards, 4 defence and 1 goalie make 11 in the lineup, plus 2 on reserve: 13 players, always. Centres and wingers are all just forwards here.
Only 1 goalie plays at a time. Your reserves can be anybody: skaters, or a backup goalie.
Your reserves double as injured reserve. There is no separate IR list: every move is one player down and one player up.

Goals. That's it. Your grinder's hits are lovely and worth nothing.

Every goal by a player in your lineup is worth 1. Your goalie earns 1 for a win and 1 for a shutout, so a shutout win pays both.
A shutout that ends in a shootout loss still counts 1. Hard luck deserves something.
Only the 11 in your lineup count toward beating your opponent. Goals by your reserves don't, though they do count toward the season goals prize.
Standings points: 2 for a win, 1 for a tie, 0 for a loss. Yes, ties. Hockey from a simpler time.
Level on points? Goals for breaks it.
Assists, plus/minus, hits, shots, penalty minutes: none of it counts. Your defenceman's plus/minus is a personal matter.

Every change waits for the next game. Every single one.

Trades, lineup swaps and injury moves all kick in at the start of the next game, never the one being played. No mid-game heroics.
Points belong to whoever had the player when he scored. Trade away a guy who then scores a hat trick for his new club, and that is between you and your therapist.

Fleece your friends. Get fleeced. Repeat.

A trade goes through the moment the other GM accepts it. Until then nothing is on hold: either player can still be dealt somewhere else.
Trading closes after Game 63, the night of the final draft (Mon, Jan 11). After that, you live with what you've got.
Positions have to match on both sides: forward for forward, defence for defence, goalie for goalie.
Both sides move the same number of players. Draft picks can ride along, but they don't count toward the numbers.
Trading an injured player? Tell the other GM. Get caught hiding it and the trade is reversed, unless two weeks have passed or somebody has already flipped the player again.
Loading your lineup with players who play more NHL games during a game isn't cheating. It's homework.

One down, one up, same position.

Between games you can bring a reserve into your lineup for any reason — nobody has to be hurt: one player down, one up, same position. The swap counts from your next game, never the one being played.
You flag your own injuries. There's no injury feed, and the commissioner can overrule a suspiciously convenient one.
Injured reserve is open all season, playoffs included. Injuries do not check the calendar.
Once a playoff series starts, no voluntary lineup changes until it ends. An injury is the only way in.

Everybody plays for something, and it all happens while the NHL regular season is still going.

The top 3 of each division make the Full Pints: 6 clubs, 3 rounds, playing for The Draft House Cup. Everyone else lands in the Half Pints: 6 clubs, 3 rounds, playing for The Silver Coaster. Nobody goes home early.
Every series is best of 7: each pool game is one game of the series, first to 4 wins.
Seeds go by points (goals for breaks ties), and they reset after every round. Where a bracket has byes, the two division leaders get them, one from each division.
A tied playoff game isn't a tie. The first goal of the next game settles it, and if that game is level too, it keeps going until somebody scores. Sudden death, pool edition.
The lineup that tied the game is the lineup that finishes it. No calling in a ringer.

Something to lift, and plenty to gloat about.

The Draft House Cup: for the Full Pints champion. The big one.
The Silver Coaster: for the Half Pints champion. Still a trophy. Technically.
Most goals in the regular season, counting all 13 players: reserves and both goalies included. You can win this and miss the playoffs, which is its own kind of story.
Goals stay with the club that had the player when they went in. Trade a sniper mid-season and both clubs keep their share.

Live on video conference. Cameras optional; trash talk mandatory.

4 drafts this season: Mon, Sep 28 · Thu, Nov 5 · Mon, Nov 23 · Mon, Jan 11. Each one is live on video conference, and the picks are recorded here.
Pick order is settled by who actually shows up on the night, traded picks included. Be there.
Draft picks can be traded like players.
An in-season pick is one out, one in, same position: drop a defenceman and you take a defenceman, and the new man takes the old man's slot.
A reserve spot can hold any position. Drop a dressed forward for a goalie and the goalie sits in reserve while a reserve forward steps up.
In-season drafts run as many rounds as the room wants, every round in the same order: fewest points first, most points last, never a snake. Pass a round and you can still pick in the next. Only the first-round pick can be traded.
Picks count from the next game. Nothing changes in the game being played that night.
After the last round, pickups are open until the next game locks: drop a player, take one nobody holds. First come, first served, as many as you like.

Disputes happen. Here's how they end.

Think a trade stinks? Appeal it. A tribunal of the commissioner plus 2 coaches, drawn at random from clubs not in the deal, makes the call. Trades don't wait for it.
A trade the tribunal rules illegal gets rescinded, and it can come with a $20 fine.
No money changes hands on this website. Entry fees and fines are settled the old-fashioned way: between people, probably at a bar.
Scoring look wrong? Tell the commissioner. Scores are only ever re-run by hand, and the old numbers stay visible beside the new ones.
Every move is on the record forever. Choose accordingly.