Draft
Find value, manage your budget and decide which players deserve a place in the organization.
THE LEAGUE
Build the team.
Build the team.
Live with the decisions.
Twenty franchises. Twenty players. Long-term ownership built around the decisions of a General Manager.
20 × 20
One league. One format.
Fantasy hockey
from the GM's chair.
IceCore Dynasty is a 20-team fantasy hockey dynasty league built around permanent franchises, long-term General Manager strategy, a 500-coin salary cap, keepers, prospects and live salary-cap auctions.
IceCore Dynasty is built around franchise management rather than daily lineup management. Draft the players. Sign them. Trade them. Develop them. Keep them. Release them.
Once the puck drops, your players play.
THE FORMAT
01
20
×
20
Twenty franchises.
Twenty players.
IceCore begins with twenty permanent franchise identities, each built around a twenty-player NHL roster.
No fantasy bench. No hidden points. Every eligible rostered player contributes whenever his NHL team puts him on the ice.
THE LEAGUE STRUCTURE
02
Four divisions.
One shared league.
Twenty permanent franchises are organized into four divisions of five franchises each.
Divisions create the internal geography of IceCore: closer rivalries, recurring matchups and a stronger identity for every franchise.
Each franchise meets its four divisional opponents twice during the regular season. Every other franchise is faced once.
The result is a schedule that gives divisional rivalries greater weight while keeping the wider league connected. Every franchise still has to compete across the entire IceCore world — but the teams closest to you matter more often.
The 23-match regular season is also the race for the IceCore Cup Playoffs. Division winners are guaranteed a place in the eight-team postseason, while the remaining places are determined by overall regular-season points. All eight playoff teams are seeded by total points.
4 · DIVISIONS
5 · FRANCHISES EACH
DIVISION RIVALS · 2×
ALL OTHER TEAMS · 1×
THE ROSTER
03
Build a hockey team.
Not a fantasy lineup.
Four forward lines. Three defensive pairs. Two goaltenders.
IceCore removes the traditional fantasy bench and shifts the decision from who should play tonight? to who deserves a place on my franchise?
Three IR+ slots protect roster flexibility through injuries, while five NA slots form each franchise's in-season development farm.
The farm creates room to follow young players and build for the future without turning IceCore into a prospect warehouse.
4
LW
4
C
4
RW
6
D
2
G
ACTIVE ROSTER
20
THE GENERAL MANAGER
04
Your job is to build the team.
Not coach Saturday night.
“You don't choose when your players count. You choose which players are worth counting on.”
Signed a player? If he is eligible, healthy and his NHL team puts him in the game, his performance belongs to your franchise.
There is no reason to own a player and then decide that his real NHL performance should disappear because he happened to sit on a fantasy bench.
THE GAME
05
Less busywork.
More consequence.
Develop
Use the NA farm to invest in young players who may shape the franchise years from now.
Trade
Move talent, salary and risk between franchises as contenders emerge and rebuilds begin.
React
Injuries, waivers, breakouts and bad contracts still demand attention. The decisions simply happen at GM level.
NO SAFE DECISIONS
06
If he's yours,
his performance is yours.
Your second goaltender faces the best offense in hockey. Your defenseman enters a difficult road trip. Your young forward is inconsistent.
You cannot hide them on a fantasy bench. Trust them, trade them, replace them or live with the result.
Roster construction is the lineup decision.
THE DYNASTY
07
Every season leaves
something behind.
IceCore franchises persist across seasons. Players carry value. Salaries matter. Prospects develop. Decisions accumulate. Salaries escalate between seasons, so every GM must eventually decide which players are worth keeping at their rising cost.
Each offseason, franchises protect an 11–15 player regular core from their active roster and IR+, while carrying forward 1–3 Development Keepers from their previous-season NA farm. Beginning with the second season, the Entry Draft adds one rookie to every franchise.
A contender may preserve almost everything it has built. A rebuilding franchise may protect a smaller core, create cap space and attack the market.
Every choice affects the next one: who you keep determines what you spend, what you spend determines what you can add, and what you develop may shape the franchise years later.
BUILD
COMPETE
KEEP
REBUILD
THE ECONOMY
08
500
One cap.
Different possibilities.
Every franchise operates under the same 500-coin Salary Cap. Keeper salaries are committed before the Live Salary Cap Draft, so every offseason begins with decisions made in seasons before it.
Protect more of your roster and enter the market with less room. Release expensive players and create flexibility. Find a star before everyone else and his value may shape your franchise for years.
Waivers use a separate 500 FAAB budget. Winning a waiver claim determines who gets the player — it does not become his salary.
THE INAUGURAL DRAFT
09
One community.
One day.
The IceCore inaugural draft is a live Salary Cap Auction. Every franchise enters the same room, manages the same budget and competes for the same player pool.
The draft is held as one shared event. It is not divided across multiple days or separate sessions. Every General Manager is expected to make time for the complete draft window.
The scheduled start is Sunday at 23:00 IceCore Time — 11:00 PM CEST / 05:00 PM EDT / 02:00 PM PDT for the inaugural-season draft. See the IceCore Calendar for the exact date and all scheduled league events.
IceCore Time is intentionally aligned with the opening-night rhythm of the NHL. It uses 23:00 CEST as the European reference point, creating a simple worldwide benchmark: when NHL opening-night hockey begins in Central Europe, that is IceCore Time.
The time was deliberately chosen as a worldwide compromise: a Sunday afternoon and evening for North America and a late Sunday evening for Europe. No time zone gets a perfect start, but the goal is to give the entire IceCore community a realistic opportunity to take part in the inaugural event together.
The draft is expected to take approximately 2–3 hours. Selected General Managers are expected to reserve the full draft window before accepting their franchise.
ONE COMMUNITY
ONE DAY
ONE AUCTION
20 FRANCHISES
500 COINS EACH
THE SCORING
10
Hockey value.
Built into Fibonacci.
IceCore uses a Head-to-Head Points system built around the six consecutive Fibonacci values: 1 · 2 · 3 · 5 · 8 · 13.
The sequence creates the scoring architecture of IceCore. Every category is assigned a value according to its importance, frequency or rarity — from the smallest contributions at 1 to the biggest single-event reward at 13.
Shots, hits and saves form the foundation at 1. Blocks and power-play points rise to 2. Goals against carry a −3 penalty. Short-handed points and wins are worth 5. Goals and assists sit at 8. A shutout reaches 13.
The numbers are fixed. The hockey categories determine where they belong. The result is a scoring system that is simple to understand, difficult to exploit and unmistakably IceCore.
1 · SOG · HIT · SV
2 · BLK · PPP
−3 · GA
5 · SHP · W
8 · G · A
13 · SHO
THE PRINCIPLE
11
Deep enough to matter.
Simple enough to enjoy.
Dynasty hockey should reward long-term thinking without occupying every day of the offseason or requiring constant lineup maintenance during the season.
IceCore keeps the systems that create meaningful decisions and removes complexity that exists only for complexity's sake.
“Activity should come from managing a franchise, not from guessing which of your own players should be allowed to score tonight.”
Twenty franchises.
One history.
The rules define the framework. The General Managers decide what happens next.
One dynasty. One community. One champion.
INAUGURAL SEASON · 2026–27
Your franchise
Your franchise
starts here.
IceCore Dynasty is recruiting General Managers for its inaugural season. Twenty permanent franchises. One shared history waiting to be written.
We're looking for GMs who stay.
IceCore is an advanced fantasy hockey league built for active GMs who enjoy hockey, long-term roster building and decisions that matter beyond a single season.
Applicants should have previous experience with Yahoo Fantasy Hockey leagues and describe their fantasy experience in their application.
New to fantasy hockey or still learning the basics? The IceCore Development League is designed for beginners who want to learn the platform, experience the format and earn their way into a future IceCore franchise.
Learn the format. Build your franchise. Meet the deadlines. Compete your way.
Please note: IceCore has a limited number of permanent franchises. If all franchises are filled, additional qualified applicants may be placed on the Reserved List and contacted when a franchise becomes available.
GM APPLICATION
Tell us about yourself.
Send a short introduction including:
- Name or nickname
- Country / time zone
- Fantasy hockey experience
- Yahoo Fantasy rating or level (if available)
- Why IceCore interests you
- Preferred IceCore franchise (see Teams page)