NHL Front Office

A roster snapshot. Original simulation ratings. Sixteen teams, one Cup.

Take over an NHL front office

A curated roster snapshot with original simulation ratings. Work under the hard cap, chase points over an 80 game season, then the divisional bracket: sixteen teams, four best-of-7 rounds, one Cup. Saves automatically.

NHL Front Office: Hockey GM Simulator

Take over an NHL franchise from a curated roster snapshot. New games use original estimates from 2024-25 and 2025-26 regular-season inputs, with limited evidence marked. Forward ratings measure offensive production; defensemen and goalies use qualified proxies. Potential, contracts and future events are simulated. Work the salary cap, waive contracts, sign free agents and negotiate trades, then chase points through an 80 game season where overtime losses still pay. Finish top three in your division or take a wild card, win four best-of-7 rounds for the Cup, then draft, develop and continue. Existing saves keep their ratings and progress.

Running an NHL club is a math problem with feelings, and now the math is yours.

You get a curated roster snapshot, original simulation ratings, a points race and a divisional bracket. New opening estimates use 2024-25 and 2025-26 regular-season inputs: offensive production for forwards, offense and usage proxies for defensemen, and save-rate proxies for goalies. Contracts, potential and future events are simulated.

How to play NHL Front Office, a free hockey GM simulation game

Pick a club and inherit its roster

Pick any of the 32 clubs from the roster snapshot. Read each opening estimate note: the e marker means limited evidence, and an unmeasured game prior means the model lacks a usable observation. These estimates do not measure every skill. Existing saves keep their grades and development.

Read the ownership mandate each offseason

Read the ownership mandate: a contender is told to win the Cup, a bubble club to make the bracket, a rebuild to hit an honest win number. It resets every offseason from where the roster really stands.

Waive, sign and work the phone on trades

Shape it: waive players, sign free agents, and work the phone on trades, where the other GM counters with pick demands and lesser returns instead of a flat yes or no.

Hire a staff, settle contracts and build packages

Under the hub's own boxes sit four more: Staff, Re-sign desk, Draft picks and Trade desk. A new franchise opens with them switched on. An older save plays on exactly as it did until you open one of them.

Staff: a head coach, a special teams assistant, a goalie coach, a scouting director and a head athletic therapist, each rated 1 to 10. Hire off a shortlist, pay off the man you do not want, and match or let go when another club comes in for a good one.

Re-sign desk: every player whose deal runs out this summer gets a tile. Keep him at his ask, push once with your own number, or let him go. Anyone you leave open is settled by your staff's own rule when the summer starts, never by a coin flip.

Trade desk: build a package of up to five pieces a side, players and picks, and keep paying part of a salary to make the money work. It shuts at the deadline.

Choose who contributes to your simulation rating

Open Roster and choose your simulation contributors: six healthy forwards, four healthy defensemen and one healthy goalie. If a group has fewer available players, use all of them. Uncheck a selected forward or defenseman before choosing his replacement.

Stage your changes, then Apply contributors to save them. Use automatic goes back to the highest rated healthy players. These groups feed the rating model; they are not full lines, defensive pairs or ice time.

Sim the season and watch your pace

Sim the season in 20 rounds of roughly four games each, with a live read on whether you are on pace.

Qualify, then win the Stanley Cup

Qualify for the playoffs: top three per division plus two wild cards per conference.

Win four best-of-7 rounds to lift the Stanley Cup, then draft and go again, as long as ownership keeps you.

NHL Front Office rules: the cap, trades and trust upstairs

A hard cap that rises every season

The cap starts at 104M and rises about 9 percent a season in this simulation. Free-agent offers must fit your room, including dead money. The existing salary-matching trade rules can allow a club above the cap; this is a limit of the game's model. New-model future offers use one fixed rating curve; unexpired signed contracts keep their price.

Real points and a roster floor and ceiling

Points are real: 2 for a win, 1 for an overtime loss, and roughly a quarter of losses go to overtime.

Rosters run between 8 and 15 players, floor and ceiling both enforced.

Trades and the draft carry real risk

Phone trades are player for player plus an optional pick, and the AI prices age, rating and position before saying yes. Bigger packages live on the Trade desk box.

Each club starts with 2 simulation picks. Trades can leave you with fewer or more choices, and each selection spends one owned pick. With none left, finish the draft and offseason. Rivals get two batches of up to five eligible selections in this abbreviated draft. Scouting grades carry error; the true rating appears only after you commit. In new-model franchises, rival clubs follow the scouting order and choose an affordable contract against the next cap, keeping unavailable choices in the pool. A contract price depends on the underlying simulated ability, so it is not a scout-only knowledge model.

Waiving a player and the dead money

Waiving a man is not free. Half his salary stays on this season's cap as dead money, a quarter lands on next season's if he had years left, and you cannot sign him back until the offseason.

Trust upstairs runs from zero to 100

Trust upstairs runs 0 to 100: beat the mandate and it climbs, miss it and it falls, a Cup fixes almost anything, and at zero you are fired and the save ends.

Deadline day, restricted free agents and retained salary

The trade deadline falls after round 15 of 20. The break after round 15 is deadline day, your last chance to deal, and once round 16 is played every deal is shut, phone calls and packages alike, until the summer. The real one falls in early March. At the deadline clubs in a playoff place, or close to one, are buyers who pay up for veterans; clubs well out of it are sellers who want picks and young players.

A draft pick signs an entry level deal, three seasons from 18 to 21. When it runs out, a player under 27 with fewer than seven seasons is a restricted free agent: a qualifying offer keeps his rights, and a rival with a roster spot may table an offer sheet you either match or let go for the picks it carries. Everyone else is unrestricted. The money is this game's own figures, not real contracts.

Your club's picks now run three drafts deep, two rounds each in this game's short draft, and any of them can be traded. A club can keep paying up to half of a traded player's salary, carry three retained deals at a time, and one contract can be retained on twice.

Staff effects are small and capped. The head coach adds rating points on attack and defense, the goalie coach on the goalies, and the special teams assistant counts at a fifth because this game has no power play of its own. A better scouting director misses by less on a prospect's grade, and the therapist shortens injuries. Ownership gives the staff 8M each summer for fees and pay offs; wages sit outside the cap.

NHL Front Office walkthrough: a Buffalo rebuild on the phone

What a goalie change does in the model

For a fictional rating example, keep your forwards and defensemen unchanged and replace a healthy 80 rated goalie with a healthy 85 rated goalie. The goalie group has a 20 percent weight, so your simulation strength rises by one point. Apply commits that choice; it changes your odds, not a promised result.

A goalie coach, an RFA tender and a deadline buy

Open Staff and hire a level 7 goalie coach off the shortlist. Level 7 is two rating points on the goalie, and the goalie carries a fifth of your strength, so the club gets 0.4 stronger on every night. That is a nudge to your odds, not a promised result.

Your 21 year old winger's entry deal runs out this summer, so he is a restricted free agent on the Re-sign desk. Tender him the qualifying offer and he stays a season at the money he earns now. If a rival has tabled an offer sheet, the tile says so: match it and he stays on the sheet's terms, or let him go and the picks on the sheet come to you.

At round 14 you sit in a wild card place, which makes you a buyer. On the Trade desk you send a depth winger and a second rounder two drafts out to a club well out of it for its veteran center, keeping half the winger's salary so the cap works. Wait until round 16 is played and the box just reads Deadline passed.

Working the phone for a Buffalo blueliner

Say you take Buffalo. You waive a fading winger, sign a 79 rated defenseman, then package your third line center plus a pick for a younger blueliner. The AI takes the deal because the value clears its price.

A wild card sweat and a draft grade that slips

The season becomes a wild card sweat decided by overtime loser points. You sneak in, stun a division winner, then die in the division final. At the draft an 88 grade center turns out to be an 84.

NHL Front Office tips for building a roster that keeps winning

Overtime loser points decide close races

Overtime loser points decide races. A team hovering around .500 can still make the bracket on them.

Strength math behind your team rating

Strength math: your selected forwards carry half your rating, your defensemen 30 percent and your goalie 20 percent. Automatic selection uses the top six healthy forwards, top four healthy defensemen and best healthy goalie. An empty group uses a rating of 62 in this game's model.

If a selected player is injured or leaves your roster, the game keeps your other valid choices and fills the gap with the highest rated healthy option. A player who recovers needs to be selected again if you want him back in the group.

Hoard players who still have upside

Players 23 and under develop toward their potential every offseason. Hoard them.

NHL Front Office FAQ: trades, firing and how long a save lasts

Why does the AI keep rejecting my trades?

It wants a premium. Centers cost the most, age tanks value fast, and adding a pick often flips a no into a yes.

Can I get fired?

Yes. Ownership grades the mandate every season and tracks trust from 0 to 100. Missing the bracket with a Cup-or-bust roster costs real trust, and at zero the save ends and you take another chair.

How long can one franchise run?

As long as ownership keeps you. Seasons chain through the draft and offseason, the game autosaves in your browser, and your Cup count carries over.

Do my contributor choices survive a reload?

Yes, after Apply contributors they live in your existing franchise save. Unsaved changes are only a preview. Old saves use automatic selection, and Use automatic clears your manual choices. You cannot select an injured player, somebody from another club or the same player twice.

Is NHL Front Office free to play?

Yes. NHL Front Office is free to play on DoUKnowBall, right in your browser. No download and no signup needed.

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NHL playoff format history and the rules this game uses