Fantasy hockey
How to play IceShift: your first pack and lineup
IceShift is a free-to-play fantasy hockey game built around real NHL performances. You start with a pack of 30 players, choose an active lineup and earn points from their games. New packs give you opportunities to improve your team, while every card you acquire stays in your collection.
Here’s how to get from your first pack to your first results.
1. Sign in and name your team
Sign in with Google and choose a unique name for your seasonal fantasy team. If you need inspiration, you can request a generated suggestion.
You can explore player statistics, scoring rules and the leaderboard before signing in. An account lets you build your own team and keep a permanent card collection.
2. Open your starter pack
Your starter pack contains 30 unique players whose NHL teams are scheduled to play on the next fantasy game day:
- 18 forwards;
- nine defensemen;
- three goalies.
A fantasy game day is a calendar date with NHL games. Dates without NHL games do not create fantasy game days or new pack opportunities.
Your initial roster already fits the salary-cap rules and has a valid active lineup and taxi squad. You can start with that arrangement or make changes before the roster locks.
Opening the pack also adds all 30 cards to your permanent collection. You keep them even if you later remove those players from your competitive roster.
3. Understand your active lineup and taxi squad
Your 30-player roster has two parts:
Only active players earn fantasy points.
Only active players earn fantasy points. The taxi squad gives you alternatives you can move into the active lineup before lock.
Players stay within their position group: forwards exchange forward slots, defensemen exchange defense slots, and goalies exchange goalie slots.
For your first lineup, check who is scheduled to play, review their recent performances and decide which players you want active. A scheduled game is an opportunity to score, rather than a guarantee that a particular player will appear.
4. Keep both salary caps in mind
IceShift uses players’ cap hits to limit how much you can spend on your roster.
There are two limits:
- Your active lineup must fit under the NHL salary cap for that season.
- Your complete roster, including the taxi squad, must fit under 1.5 times that cap.
Moving an expensive player from the taxi squad into the active lineup can take you over the active cap, even though the total cost of your 30-player roster has not changed.
For example, replacing an active player with a $3 million cap hit with a taxi player carrying a $7 million cap hit adds $4 million to your active total. You need that much available space, or another change that brings the lineup back under the cap.
Those amounts are hypothetical. Your roster view displays the actual totals and limits.
- Active cap usage
- +$4m
- Total roster cap usage
- No change
5. Confirm your lineup before lock
You can manage your roster using drag and drop or keyboard selection, with formation, list and card views available.
Changes remain pending until you confirm a complete, valid roster. After making your swaps, check the position counts and cap totals, then confirm.
The whole roster locks one hour before the first scheduled NHL game of the fantasy day. That deadline applies to your team even if some of your players’ games start later.
Check the displayed deadline and leave enough time to finish your changes.
6. Follow your players’ results
Once your active players compete, their NHL statistics determine their fantasy points.
Skaters earn points from goals, assists, plus/minus, blocked shots, hits and time on ice. Goalies earn points from saves, wins, shutouts and time on ice, as well as any goals or assists. Goals conceded subtract points.
The scoring formula matters when choosing players. A defenseman can contribute through blocked shots without scoring a goal, while a goalie’s saves can be offset by goals conceded. Negative fantasy scores are possible.
The scoring page explains the full formula with worked examples.
- Goals 0 × 15
- +0
- Assists 2 × 9
- +18
- Plus / minus +2 × 2
- +4
- Blocked shots 0 × 3
- +0
- Hits 0 × 1
- +0
- Time on ice 18:13 → 3
- +3
After all games in the fantasy day are final and scoring is settled, you can review your locked lineup, each player’s statistics and point breakdown, and your team total. Daily standings show how your team compared with other participants that day.
7. Open your next pack and improve your roster
After the previous fantasy day’s games are final, one six-card pack becomes available for the next game day:
- three forwards;
- two defensemen;
- one goalie.
Daily packs exclude players already on your competitive roster. A player you previously cut can appear again.
Opening a pack adds all six cards to your collection before you make roster decisions. You can keep your current team or bring new players into the active lineup or taxi squad.
For each new player you keep on the competitive roster, you must cut one existing player. Your final roster still needs the correct position counts and must fit both salary caps.
Cut players and unused pack cards remain in your collection. You do not have to keep a player on your roster to keep their card.
If you do not open the pack before lock, your previous lineup carries forward.
8. Build your rolling score
The main leaderboard counts each team’s latest 30 completed fantasy game days.
When you first join, your score builds up as you complete days. Once you have more than 30, older results leave the calculation as newer ones enter it.
You can also browse your previous results and compare individual days independently of your rolling total.
Your first-game-day checklist
Before lock:
- Open your starter pack.
- Review the active lineup and taxi squad.
- Check scheduled games and recent performances.
- Keep your lineup within both salary caps.
- Confirm any changes.
After scoring settles, review what each player contributed. Then use the next pack to decide where your roster could improve.