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Pools — Create and Pick

2026-05-11

Pools — Create and Pick

Pools are side competitions where league members make predictions and earn points as the underlying NHL events resolve. FanPoolHQ supports two flavors — category pools (prediction-style picks like top scorer or division winner) and playoff pools (round-by-round bracket selections).

What a pool is

A pool sits alongside the main fantasy league as a parallel scoreboard. Where the main league rewards you for the players on your roster, pools reward you for the predictions you make about the NHL at large — who wins the Hart Trophy, which team takes the Atlantic Division, which seed you've got going to the Stanley Cup Final. Every pool has its own list of participants (anyone in the league can join, subject to the pool creator's settings), its own deadline (after which picks lock), and its own scoring window (the stretch of the NHL calendar during which the underlying events count toward the score).

The pools page lives in the league sidebar. From there you can see every pool currently open in your league, filter by status (open / locked / closed), and click in to make or review your picks.

Two pool types

Category pools ask you to pick a single player or NHL team for each of several predefined categories — for example, "most goals", "most points", "division winner — Atlantic", "Hart Trophy winner". Each category is independent. Your score for the pool is the sum of points across all your picks, where each pick scores based on its own metric (player picks score goals + assists across the scoring window; NHL-team picks score the standings points of the chosen team).

Playoff pools ask you to fill out a Stanley Cup bracket — pick a winner for every series in every round, optionally with the number of games. Scoring weights each round (a correct second-round pick is usually worth more than a correct first-round pick), and the final score is the sum of round-by-round correct picks.

Who can create a pool

Anyone in the league can create a pool, subject to your league's pool-creation policy. Your commissioner can leave it wide open (any member can spin one up at any time) or restrict creation to admins only — see your league settings if you're not sure which mode is on. The creator picks the categories, the scoring window, and the deadline. Once published, the pool is open for picks by anyone in the league.

Making picks

Once a pool is published, everyone in the league can open it from the pools page and submit their picks. You can update your picks freely until the deadline — at the deadline, your last-saved selections lock and become final. After the deadline, you watch your score climb in real time as the underlying events resolve and the scoring window plays out.

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