I don’t know if these pools have a universal name across sports, but the concept is simple: You pick a “fantasy team” before the postseason, and those players accumulate points until they’re eliminated. It works for just about any sport with a bracket-style postseason, and it’s always been popular in hockey.
There are a few different ways to run a pool like this:
- Snake draft, where only one version of each player is owned. This will typically be amongst friends, with a max of 8-10 entries, or else you’ll quickly run out of players (especially goalies).
- Mass-entry. Everyone can pick the same players, so you’ll end up with most of the pool owning Connor McDavid and Nathan MacKinnon. These pools will be bigger, and you need to differentiate yourself.
We’ll be focusing on the mass-entry type, where everyone can pick the same players. It’s the format our friends at MoneyPuck are using.