Video update coming soon — the features below reflect the latest version of Live Draft.
Live Draft — Real-Time Interactive Drafting
Live Draft lets your entire pool draft interactively in real-time. The administrator configures the draft, and every poolie joins from their own device — whether they're in the same room or across the country. No phone calls needed. No waiting for someone to relay picks. Everyone sees the board update live as selections are made.
How It Works
Administrator sets up the draft — configure Snake or Ladder order, number of rounds, team names, and optional auto-selection timer. A visual indicator shows the current draft direction.
Poolies join with a Pool Login — each participant enters their pool's login name and their email address to join. An email/password account keeps their identity verified.
Draft in real-time — when it's your turn, an autocomplete search box appears in your active cell. Type a player name and select from the dropdown. OR select a player by clicking the Draft button next to their name in the Top Scorers or other charts. Everyone else sees your pick within seconds.
View your stats — the Draft Table shows each Poolie team's full roster, positional breakdown (Forwards, Defensemen, Goalies), salary cap utilization, and East/West conference balance.
The Draft Board
Top Undrafted Players, Goalies, Defensemen, AND your custom list produced by TheHockeyPool's Playoff Predictor — tables showing the best available players, updated instantly as picks are made. Includes regular season stats: GP, G, A, Pts, +/-, PIM, and more.
Top Undrafted by NHL Team — links take you to see the best remaining skaters and goalies on each NHL team.
Injury Alerts — injured players are highlighted in yellow with a tooltip showing the injury details and expected return date.
Draft Buttons — one-click drafting from any player list. Buttons are active only when it's your turn, greyed out otherwise.
East/West Conference Counts — each team header shows how many Eastern vs Western conference players have been drafted, alongside the positional breakdown.
Auto-Selection Timer
Optionally, the administrator can enable an auto-selection timer. If a poolie doesn't make their pick within the allotted time, a player is automatically drafted for them from the top available players. The administrator configures:
Time limit per pick (10 to 600 seconds)
How many top players to randomly select from (1 to 50 — set to 1 to always pick the #1 ranked player)
A countdown and warning message appears on everyone's display when time is running low, showing which player will be auto-selected.
Audio & Visual Cues
Audio ding when it becomes your turn — so you don't miss your pick window.
Pause/Resume — the administrator can pause the draft timer at any time. A banner appears for all participants, and all timers freeze. You know, for like pizza and beer run breaks.
Edit Pick — administrators can correct any historical pick with a simple click. The edit modal lets you search for a replacement player without disrupting the draft flow.
Playoff Predictor Integration
For Playoff Drafts, our Playoff Predictor lets you forecast every series — pick winners and number of games from Round 1 through the Stanley Cup Final. Based on your predictions, a personalized ranked list of projected top scorers is generated using each player's regular season Points Per Game multiplied by their predicted playoff games.
Link your Predictions to your Live Draft: save your predictions with your email address, and when you join a Live Draft, a "My Player Predictions" and "My Goalie Predictions" panel appears on your draft board. As other poolies draft players, those players are automatically removed — so you always know which of your predicted top picks are still available.
NEW in the Predictor: Community prediction percentages are shown on each matchup, so you can see how your picks compare to everyone else's.
Snake Order / Ladder Order
Snake Order — the draft direction reverses each round. If Team 1 picks first in Round 1, they pick last in Round 2, then first again in Round 3. This is the most common format and helps balance fairness.
Ladder Order — the draft order stays the same every round. Team 1 always picks first.
The administrator selects the format on the configuration page, with a visual indicator showing the draft direction.
They enter their email address and password (or create an account if new).
If the draft hasn't started yet, they're placed in a waiting room that automatically redirects when the draft begins.
If their email has not been entered by the admin for their team, a join request is sent to the administrator, who can approve and assign them to a team in real-time.
The administrator can see whether each join request is from a verified account.
Administrator Features
Team Management — set team names, and email addresses.
Randomize Draft Order — shuffle team positions with one click before the draft starts.
Edit Any Pick — correct mistakes on historical picks without disrupting the draft.
Assign Members — associate email addresses with teams during the draft.
Pause/Resume — freeze the draft and all timers at any time.
Loading Spinner — a visual indicator during draft initialization prevents double-submissions.
Failsafe Rollback — if initialization fails, the system reverts cleanly with no partial data.
After the Draft
When the last pick is made, the draft automatically transitions to Complete.
Participants are redirected to their Daily Stats Page to track their team through the season.
The administrator is prompted to record Tie-Breaker Rules in case teams end up deadlocked at the end of the season.
If the draft is interrupted for any reason, you can restart it — it picks up exactly where it left off.
Technical Details
Works on any device with a web browser — desktop, tablet, or phone.
No software to install, no plugins required.
Supports 2 to 40 teams per draft, up to 50 players per team.
Real-time updates via lightweight polling — all participants see changes within seconds.