Hockey Pool Guide

A good pool is mostly paperwork done early. The fun part, watching your picks score on a Tuesday night, only works if the boring part was settled in September. The steps below take about an hour for a group of ten and save you from nearly every argument that shows up in March.

1. 1

   Pick one organizer: one person collects money, keeps the list and has the final word. A committee sounds fair but slows every decision, so choose someone who is organized and not playing for the top prize in a way that creates a conflict.

2. 2

   Choose the format: a points pool, a playoff bracket, a salary-cap style draft or a weekly pick-the-winner game. Pick the one your group can follow without a manual. The formats section below compares them.

3. 3

   Set the entry fee: pick an amount that nobody will resent losing. Many groups settle on C$10 to C$50, but the right number is whatever keeps the mood friendly. Decide whether people may buy a second entry.

4. 4

   Decide how picks are made: a live draft in a group chat, a form sent by e-mail or a shared spreadsheet. State the deadline in one named time zone and say what happens to late entries.

5. 5

   Write the scoring: how many points for a goal, an assist, a goalie win and a shutout, plus the tiebreaker. Keep the list short enough to fit on one screen of a phone.

6. 6

   Fix the payouts: how many places are paid and what share each gets. Use the calculator in the next section to test a few splits before you announce one.

7. 7

   Send the rules and collect: post the full hockey pool rules in one message, ask for payment by e-Transfer and pin the message so it is easy to find in the chat all season.

8. 8

   Publish standings on a schedule: weekly is plenty. A regular update keeps people interested in January, when the season feels long.

How long should setup take?

Allow a week from the first message to the pick deadline. The first two days are for questions about the format, the next three for payments and picks, and the last two for reminders. Starting earlier than that rarely helps, because people only act when the deadline is close.

Most hockey pools are variations of six ideas. The best choice depends on how much time your group wants to spend and how well they know the league. If half the office cannot name a defenceman, pick a format that does not rely on deep knowledge.

• Points pool

  Each entrant names a set group of skaters and a goalie, and the pool adds up their goals and assists over the season. Easy to follow and easy to audit.

• Playoff bracket

  Entrants predict the winner of every series and the number of games. It starts in the spring and finishes with the Stanley Cup final, so it suits busy people.

• Snake draft

  Players take turns picking real NHL skaters, with the order reversing each round. No two entrants hold the same player, which makes trades part of the fun.

• Salary-cap style

  Every player has a price and each entrant spends a fixed budget. It rewards research, but the pool needs an agreed price list at the start.

• Weekly pick'em

  Each week entrants choose the winners of a set of games. A fresh start each week keeps latecomers in the race, though it needs weekly admin.

• Elimination pool

  Pick one team to win each night, and you cannot reuse a team. A wrong pick knocks you out, so the pool shrinks until one person is left.

Scoring that people can remember

Simple point values work best. A common set is one point for a goal, one for an assist, and a few extra points for a goalie win or a shutout. If you add a bonus for a hat trick or an overtime winner, keep it to one or two extras so the standings stay readable.

Playoff scoring usually weights later rounds more heavily, since a correct pick in the final is harder to make than one in the first round. Put the multiplier in writing, even if it is as basic as doubling the points each round.

Choosing a format for your group

Ask three questions. How much time will people give each week? How well do they know the league? And does the pool need to run for the whole season or only for the playoffs? A busy office with mixed knowledge will do best with a playoff bracket or a simple points pool. A group of keen fans who enjoy research can handle a snake draft or a salary-cap style game, and they will enjoy the extra planning.

You can also combine formats: a season-long points pool for the winter and a separate bracket in the spring, each with its own fee and prizes. Treat them as two pools with two sets of rules, so the money never gets mixed up.

Tiebreakers

Choose a tiebreaker before the first game. Most goals is the classic option, with most assists and the earliest entry as backups. If you expect ties often, plan for a split of the prizes, and make sure the calculator shows what each tied entrant gets.

Almost every pool argument comes from the same short list of errors. Look through them before you send your own rules, and see whether any of them describes the document you have in mind.

"We will sort out the rules as we go."

Rules written before the first pick are the only ones that feel fair. Unwritten rules turn into opinions as soon as money is involved.

"Payment can wait until the end."

Collect before the picks lock. Chasing money in April is awkward and sometimes impossible.

"Everyone knows the tiebreaker."

Nobody does. Name it in the rules, and add a second option in case the first one does not separate the tied entries.

"The organizer can play too, and no one will mind."

It is fine, as long as the organizer's picks are posted with everyone else's and the standings are public.

"A complex scoring system is more fun."

Complex rules create more questions than fun. If it does not fit on a phone screen, shorten it.

"Time zones will not matter."

A deadline without a named zone leads to late entries and hurt feelings in the west. Always state it.

The most expensive mistake is the silent one: an organizer who answers questions privately. Whenever someone asks about a rule, answer in the group message, so the next person with the same question finds the answer already there. It also shows that every entrant is treated the same way.

Other slips worth avoiding

• Letting someone join after the first game "just this once", which invites every other latecomer to ask.
• Forgetting to say what happens when a player is injured for the rest of the season.
• Posting standings only once, then going silent for months.
• Rounding payouts differently each time, so the numbers never match the pot.
• Using one person's private spreadsheet that nobody else can see.

If you fix only two things, make them the written rules and the early payment. Those two habits prevent most of the trouble, and everything else is a matter of taste.

Here is how a messy rule usually looks next to a clean one. Each row is a real-world pattern that pool organizers rewrite after their first season.

Swipe to see the whole table

The deadline row matters most. "Date, hour, zone" means a sentence such as "Friday 16 October at 18:00 Eastern", which leaves no room for a different reading. In the payment row, "before lock" means the money is in your hands before anybody sees the standings. For scoring, a written list can be as short as five lines, as long as it names every event that earns a point.

The tiebreaker and payout rows prevent the most heated discussions. Fixed percentages are easy to check with the calculator above, and a named tiebreaker means you never need a late-night vote. Finally, a single decision-maker is not a dictatorship: it simply means that when two people disagree about whether an empty-net goal counts, one person already has the authority to answer. You can read more about our approach to guides or go back to the home page for the latest offers, and the news page collects updates as they appear.