FREE DOWNLOAD · ANNUAL RELEASE
Built by a desk that's logged 1,184 NHL rumors since 2019. Given away every August since 2020 to 11,000+ first-year fantasy hockey managers. The same files we'd hand a friend who just joined a keeper league and asked "where do I even start."
WHAT'S INSIDE
A one-page, double-sided reference covering scoring categories, common keeper formats, and the 12 rookie-eligible forwards we expect to break out this year. Designed to be taped to a wall.
Two editable spreadsheets with built-in $/point and VORP columns. Snake version handles 8–18 teams and up to 25 rounds; auction handles standard $200 budgets with auto-nomination timer notes.
A short, opinionated guide (14 pages) on when to punt categories, how to value multi-position eligibility, and the three mistakes first-year GMs make every October. No filler.
A weekly-use spreadsheet that ranks FAAB bids by expected value, plus a printable decision flowchart for "drop or hold" calls during the first three weeks of the season.
Plug in two rosters, get a swap recommendation with a confidence band. Built off the same internal tool our analysts used when ranking among the top 25 public keeper leagues on Fantrax and MFL.
Twenty of the most-asked questions from last year's download cohort — when to start a goalie on a back-to-back, how to read a player card, whether to chase hits or blocks in year one — answered in plain English.
Total: 38 pages of PDF, four spreadsheets, zero upsells. You'll have it inside 60 seconds of submitting the form.
A NOTE FROM THE DESK
The short answer is self-interest, dressed up as generosity. Every keeper league needs new managers, and most of them quit by Thanksgiving because nobody handed them a playbook. We've spent six trade deadlines ranking among the top 25 public keeper leagues on Fantrax and MFL — and we got there by poaching half our best opponents from leagues that fell apart in October. The Rookie GM Kit is, frankly, an attempt to keep those leagues alive long enough that someone eventually beats us.
The longer answer is that fantasy hockey is a craft, and crafts die when the on-ramp is broken. We publish the Deadline Wire to a paying-grade audience of 48,700 subscribers for the in-season signal. The Kit is the opposite: it's the pre-season foundation piece, written for the manager who has never set a lineup and isn't sure what a power-play unit is. There is no version of this where we charge for it.
If you downloaded last year's edition, the 2025 version drops in your inbox automatically the moment you submit the form. If this is your first August with us — welcome. The PDF prints clean on a standard office printer, the spreadsheets work in Excel and Google Sheets, and the trade evaluator has saved at least one of us from a truly embarrassing offer every year since 2021.
— The desk · Halifax · August 2025
PICK ONE OR TAKE BOTH
Different jobs, same desk. Most readers end up with both — but the Kit alone will get you through October.
For first-year fantasy hockey managers
For competitive keeper-league managers chasing every edge
Both are run by the same 7-person analytics desk with 41 combined years of NHL front-office and DFS experience. The Kit comes first because there's no point in trade-deadline intel if your league dissolves in week four.
2025 EDITION · READY NOW
38 pages of printable templates, four Excel sheets, one cheat sheet, zero dollars. The 2025 Rookie GM Kit is the same files we'd hand a friend who just joined a keeper league — now packaged and given away free every August since 2020.
ALREADY READY FOR THE IN-SEASON SIGNAL?
The Deadline Wire hits your inbox daily during the NHL season and hourly on trade-deadline day — built off the same 7-person analytics desk, with 9.4 hours of average lead time on confirmed 2024 deadline trades. Get the pre-deadline rumor fire for free.
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