Category Pool Walkthrough

What a category pool looks like

A category pool is a collection of independent prediction categories, each with its own set of options. The creator defines the categories (for example: "most goals", "most assists", "Atlantic Division winner") and the options each category accepts. Player categories pull from the NHL player pool; team categories list the 32 NHL teams. Every participant picks one option per category, and at the end of the scoring window each pick scores based on the underlying NHL stats — player picks earn the goals + assists their player accumulated, team picks earn the standings points of the team they chose.

The pool's deadline and its scoring window are configured by the pool creator when the pool is set up — neither is a fixed FanPoolHQ value, and your commissioner doesn't override them after the fact. The deadline is when picks lock; the scoring window is the start-and-end date pair during which the underlying stats count toward the score.

Creating and picking

Open the Pools page from the league sidebar. If your league hasn't created any pools yet, you'll see an empty state with a Create category pool button. Otherwise the page lists existing pools and the same create button sits at the top.

Name the pool something descriptive — "2026 Season Awards" or "Q2 Top Scorer Pool" — and choose the deadline. After the deadline timestamp, every participant's picks lock in their last-saved state. The deadline is your pool's pick window — pick a date that gives everyone enough time but still locks before the first underlying event resolves.

Set the scoring window — a start date and an end date. The pool only counts stats that fall inside this window. For a regular-season awards pool, the window typically covers opening night to the last day of the regular season. For a shorter mini-pool (say, "top scorer in March"), the window covers just that month. The window is independent of the deadline; you can have a deadline of October 1 and a scoring window of October 1 through April 15, for example.

Define the categories to predict on. For each category, give it a name (the question being asked, like "Most goals — regular season"), pick the option type (player or NHL team), and list the eligible options. The pool builder lets you add as many categories as you want; common pools have 6-12 categories covering the major end-of-season storylines.

Publish the pool. Once it's live, every member of the league sees it on the pools page and can open it to make their picks. They have until the deadline to update freely.

Make your own picks before the deadline. You'll see every category laid out one after another with its options listed. Click an option to select it for that category. You can save and come back later — your in-progress selections are persisted as you go. At the deadline, whatever's saved is what locks.

As the scoring window plays out, the pool scores automatically. Player picks pull cumulative goals + assists from the day-by-day stats sync; team picks pull current standings points. The pool standings page updates as the daily stats sync runs (typically nightly). Once the scoring window closes, the final standings are locked in.

Tips for picking and creating

If you're the creator, line the categories up to tell a story — group player awards (Hart, Vezina, top scorer) together, group team-level predictions (division winners, conference finalists) together. It makes the pick page easier to scan and feels more like a coherent "season-in-one-page" exercise.

If you're a participant, your picks save the moment you click an option — you don't need to hit "submit" to make them count. The lock happens automatically at the deadline. There's no penalty for picking conservatively or for going contrarian; the pool just adds up whatever your picks score.