The Best NHL Playoff Pool Software in 2026 (Ranked)

Commissioners who want a pool decided by series length, not just by who advances.

• A game-count bonus in the scoring model. Members pick the series winner and how many games it takes; getting both earns a bonus whose value is set per round. In a league where first-round series routinely reach six or seven games, that is the call worth scoring. PoolsByRound offers series game-count picks too; what it does not describe is weighting that bonus per round, so a first-round call and a final can be worth different amounts.
• Round-by-round picking with per-series locks. Members can pick each round off the real matchups instead of filling the whole bracket in April, and each series locks when its own first game starts. That fits a postseason where the first round eliminates most people's brackets.
• Results without a commissioner. A scheduled job pulls completed games every ten minutes, around the clock — including the overnight finishes that make hockey pools painful to score by hand.
• Flat pricing at any size. $20 for the tournament, $90 for lifetime access to every tournament, free for one pool of up to 10 members with no ads and full scoring control.
• Pricing: Free — 1 pool, 10 members, 1 entry each. Tournament Pass — $20 for the NHL playoffs. Lifetime All-Access — $90 once.

Falls short — Brackets only — no confidence pool, and no player-draft pool, which is a popular hockey format this platform does not run at all. No native app. Everyone needs an account unless the commissioner maintains a guest entry for them — free, though commissioner-operated — where PoolsByRound lets participants pick for themselves. No entry-fee collection. And it is not the cheapest option: PoolsByRound runs round-by-round pick'em pools free at any size.

First because the scoring model is built for best-of-seven rather than adapted to it — winner plus exact game count, weighted per round. It beats RunYourPool and PoolTracker on that specific point and on price at size. If your group's tradition is a player-draft pool rather than a bracket, none of this applies and you want OfficePoolJunkie or a dedicated draft tool.

Commissioners who want a free hockey pool that is not capped at ten people.

• "PAY WHAT YOU WANT to run your office pools with us. Yes, you can even choose FREE!" — with no member cap attached.
• The deepest hockey coverage on this list: NHL alongside the NLL and PWHL.
• Nine formats — bracket, confidence, margin, pick'em, power ranking, round robin, survivor and more — so a hockey group can run several pools at once.
• A Pool Wizard for setup, and autopicks for members who forget.
• Live scoring.

Falls short — Free pools carry ads. Paying reduces them in proportion — "Ad Removal Rate (%) = Payment / Removal Threshold x 100" — and the threshold that clears them entirely is computed per pool from format, features, participant count and duration, so an ad-free pool has no price published up front and costs more as the pool grows. Manual pick entry by the commissioner is not described publicly. Series game-count scoring is not described. No native app named.

The best uncapped free option for a hockey pool, and the only platform here that also covers the PWHL and NLL — though free means ads, and clearing them costs more as the pool grows. Playoff Pick'Ems is the better pick when the scoring model matters; OfficePoolJunkie is better when the member count does.

Groups that already run their NFL and March pools in one place.

• NHL pools alongside NFL, NBA, MLB, NCAA, golf and Oscars pools under one account.
• A private message board — worth something across a two-month postseason.
• Automatic deadlines and real-time standings.
• Pick summaries and leaderboards under a commissioner hub.
• Free through the first week of the season.

Falls short — Pricing is per entry, not per pool: $20.00 covers the first 10, then $2.00 each through 50, $1.50 through 200, $1.00 through 500 and $0.75 beyond — $100 at 50 entries, $175 at 100, $325 at 200. The only way out is a different commercial model: their help centre lists a contest's cost as "Contest vault or service fee for commissioner" — the vault routes entry money through the platform, which takes a cut of the prize pool instead. There is no free path: pay per entry, or give up a slice of the pot. Series-length scoring is not described publicly. No mobile app named.

The convenient answer for an existing group, and the strongest message board here. For the NHL specifically it publishes nothing about how a best-of-seven is scored beyond the winner.

Commissioners who expect to correct entries during a long postseason.

• Commissioners can edit anyone's picks at any time, and set custom pick deadlines.
• Hockey covered alongside football, basketball, soccer, baseball and cricket.
• Free pools with unlimited players, carrying banner ads.
• Downloadable user data.
• Private-label branding and custom email.

Falls short — Free pools carry banner ads and score only nightly — "scores calculated within a few minutes of each game's end" is an upgrade. Upgrades are priced per player, and every one of its 50-plus pool types is priced separately, so budget from that pool's own table rather than a headline figure. Private-label branding needs a template on top ($199.99 to $799.99). Unrestricted commissioner editing with no published audit trail is a risk in a pool with a buy-in. Series-length scoring is not described publicly.

Sensible when mid-tournament corrections are part of how your pool actually runs. Playoff Pick'Ems does the same job with post-lock edits off by default and every change that does happen recorded.

A free, branded office pool where the bracket is a side dish.

• Free with no member limit, funded by optional donations — "our site is free to use. Feel free to donate if you'd like to help us out!"
• Pool branding with your own logo and news posts on the pool page.
• Group email to all members.
• Custom deadlines, enforced automatically.
• No software to download; the site is web based and mobile friendly.

Falls short — The published pool list centres on football, March Madness, squares, the World Cup and the Home Run Derby — a dedicated NHL playoff pool is not named, so hockey support is unclear from public information. No native app.

Only worth considering if your group already runs its other pools there. For a Stanley Cup bracket specifically, every other platform on this list publishes clearer hockey support.

Commissioners who want the widest sport list at no cost.

• Free with no upsell — "All features are free", "No annoying ads", no paid tier at all.
• Both picking modes, its "signature feature": "Pick one round at a time or the whole bracket at the start".
• Deep scoring — head-to-head, beat the spread, underdog weighting, round significance, pick risk, parlays, over/under, and series game-count picks.
• "One Login, Multiple Picks (no-login players)" — no account needed.
• The broadest sport list of any free platform here: NFL, college football, NBA, WNBA, March Madness, the Stanley Cup and MLB playoffs, both World Cups, and Olympic events.
• Commissioners add players by name and make late picks for them, free — the same job our guest entries do.
• A league message board, automatic deadlines, and leaderboards "updated within minutes after each game".

Falls short — Its feature list stops at the group stage: no group tables, so a World Cup pool cannot score a predicted standing or a perfect group. No confidence or survivor formats, and no native app.

The honest free choice, and it beats Playoff Pick'Ems on price outright — nothing is cheaper than free, and its no-login players pick for themselves where our guest entries are commissioner-run. What its feature list does not reach is group-stage tables and per-round weighting of the game-count bonus.

Hockey groups whose tradition is a player draft rather than a bracket.

• A dedicated NHL hockey pool manager, with an MLB baseball pool manager alongside it.
• Draft pools and box-style pools, scored across "over 30 stats".
• Custom or predefined scoring rules, and reports the commissioner can shape — "customize the reports to suit your pool needs".
• Native Apple and Android apps with live scores, stats and notifications.
• "Free plan available".

Falls short — Pricing is per person above the free tier: Basic is free with "more ads" and charges extra for app access, Standard is "$3 /person (max $50)", Pro is "$5 /person", and an Office/Groups tier is "$500 Unlimited Accounts". The Standard cap is the interesting one — $50 stops the meter at roughly seventeen people. It is a player-draft product, so it does not answer "who wins each series" — there is no bracket entry at all.

It ranks here because it wins the same conversation, not the same comparison. If your pool drafts players and scores their stats, PoolExpert is the right tool and Playoff Pick'Ems does not compete for the job. If your pool predicts series winners and how long they run, the reverse is true.

Canadian hockey groups running a long-standing draft or keeper pool.

• Fifteen years in the format, describing itself as "the leader in fantasy hockey in Canada".
• Standard hockey draft, box selection pool and keeper league formats.
• A branded solution for organisations that want the pool to carry their own identity.
• A free hockey pool trial before committing.
• An admin panel for commissioners, backed by "15 years of exceptional support".

Falls short — Priced per pool, not per person — a "free 7 day trial", then "$19.97 USD" ad-supported or "$29.97 USD" ad-free, and the FAQ is explicit that "Both are per pool, not per person". Regular season and playoffs are separate purchases, though participants and picks can be reloaded from one into the other. Like PoolExpert it is a draft product, with no bracket entry.

The incumbent for Canadian draft and keeper pools, and the deepest keeper support on this list. It is not a Stanley Cup bracket tool, so it and Playoff Pick'Ems rarely reach the same shortlist — the choice is made earlier, when the group decides whether it is drafting players or picking series.