Guide
How to play Rink Roll
Rink Roll is a hockey player builder. You spin a reel of real NHL players, take one skill from each player you land on, and keep going until you have built a complete forward, defenseman or goaltender. Your finished player gets an overall grade, an archetype and a projected 82-game season.
The basic loop
- Pick a mode. Solo lets you choose your own player pool and position. Daily gives everyone the same spins once a day. Head-to-head puts you in a private lobby against a friend.
- Spin. The reel scrolls through names and stops on one real player at your chosen position.
- Take one skill. Tap an open category on your build, like Shot or Speed. Your player gets that NHL player's grade in that category, and the slot locks.
- Repeat until every slot is full. Forwards have six categories, defensemen and goalies have five. Each real player can only be used once per build.
- See your result. Your overall grade is the average of your category grades. Your two best categories decide your archetype, such as Pure Sniper, Shutdown Wall or Robber.
The catch is that you have to decide where each player goes before you see the next one. Landing on an elite playmaker early is great, unless you already used your Playmaking slot.
Game modes
Solo
Choose a player pool, a position and whether to show grades before you pick. Play as many builds as you like.
Daily challenge
Every day there is one numbered Daily. Everyone who plays it gets the exact same players in the exact same order, so the only difference between your build and a friend's is how you assigned them. The position rotates each day between forward, defenseman and goaltender. Grades are hidden, you get one re-roll, and you get one try. When you finish, the Share button copies a spoiler-free grid of colored squares that shows how your build graded without giving away which players you drew.
Head-to-head
One player creates a lobby and sends the five-character code or invite link to a friend. When the friend joins, each player gets their own spins and builds at their own pace. Grades are always hidden in head-to-head, so it comes down to hockey knowledge. A progress bar shows how many slots your opponent has filled, but not what they picked. When you both finish, the builds are compared category by category. The higher overall grade wins, and categories won breaks a tie. Hit Rematch for a new set of spins in the same lobby.
Player pools
Current NHL includes rostered NHL players with at least 82 career regular-season games. Forwards also need at least 0.40 career points per game, which keeps the pool to players with a real offensive role.
Modern Era Stars covers 1980 and up: the top 75 forwards, top 75 defensemen and top 35 goaltenders of the modern era, graded against each other.
The categories
Forwards
- Speed
- Top skating speed and how often a player hits 20+ mph bursts.
- Shot
- Shot velocity, goal-scoring rate and shooting percentage.
- Hands
- Finishing from the slot, scoring rate and power-play production.
- Sense
- Offensive-zone time, plus/minus, points and ice time.
- Playmaking
- Assist rate, power-play points and how much of a player's scoring comes from setting others up.
- Build
- Height, weight and willingness to play physical.
- Grit (Current NHL only)
- Net-front presence, tips, screens, puck battles and offensive physicality.
Defensemen
- Speed
- Top skating speed and burst frequency.
- Shot
- Shot velocity, goal rate and shot volume.
- Physicality
- Size, penalty minutes, shot power and puck battles.
- Build
- Height and weight.
- Stick-checking
- Ice time, plus/minus and clean play, the signs a coach trusts a player defensively.
Goaltenders
- Speed
- High-danger and mid-range save percentage, with a lean toward younger, more mobile goalies.
- Reflexes
- Save percentage on high-danger shots near the net.
- Mid-range
- Save percentage on shots from the circles and high slot.
- Long-range
- Save percentage on point shots and long attempts.
- Rebounding
- Overall save percentage, consistency and goals against.
Public NHL data does not split saves by glove side and blocker side, so goalies are graded on save percentage by shot distance instead.
The grade scale
Grades run from F up to S, with plus and minus steps from D through A:
FD-DD+C-CC+B-BB+A-AA+S
For current players, each player is ranked against everyone at his position, then the rankings are curved. Roughly the top 2% in a category earn an S and the bottom 8% get an F. Players with small samples are pulled toward the middle, so a hot stretch in a few dozen games does not earn an elite grade. Modern Era Stars are graded by hand from each player's career, and their grades are relative to other legends: a C in that pool is still a very good NHL player.
Strategy tips
- Save your scarce slots. Plenty of players have a good Build. Very few have an S in Shot or Playmaking. If an average player lands, put him in the category that is easiest to fill later.
- Know the specialists. Stay-at-home defensemen tend to have strong Stick-checking but weak Shot. Small, skilled forwards tend to grade high in Hands and Sense but low in Build.
- Use your re-roll late. You only get one. It is most valuable when you are down to your last open slot and the reel lands on someone who is weak there.
- Hidden grades reward hockey knowledge. With grades hidden, you are betting on what you know about each player. Turn on easy mode in Solo if you want to see the grades first.
Questions
Where does the data come from?
Current player grades come from public NHL statistics and NHL EDGE puck and player tracking: skating speed, shot speed, shooting percentage, zone time, scoring rates, size and save percentage by shot location. The data is refreshed periodically during the season.
Why did my favorite player get a low grade?
Grades are relative to every other player at the same position. A strong NHL player can still sit in the middle of the pack in a single category. Grades also measure specific stats, so a player's reputation does not always match his numbers.
Do I need an account?
No. Solo, Daily and the Line Builder work right away, and head-to-head only needs a name, not an account.
Is Rink Roll official?
No. Rink Roll is a fan-made game. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by the National Hockey League, the NHL Players' Association or any team.