WhatIfSports.com's SimLeague Hockey

Using WhatIfSports.com’s SimLeague Hockey the greatest hockey debates can finally be settled. This is the one place where the passion, interest and love of hockey stays strong and the puck drops daily all year round.

SimLeague Hockey gives owners the chance to play both general manager and coach by allowing them to build and manage a team comprised of players from throughout NHL history.

That means the Bobby and Bret Hull father-and-son combination could be paired on a line with Wayne Gretzky, while Bobby Orr and Doug Harvey guard the back line and Jacques Plante stands between the pipes. Of course, that squad could face a team with Gordie Howe, Mario Lemieux, Toe Blake, Paul Coffey, Guy LaPointe and Patrick Roy. Owners are able to select their team from a pool of every NFL player who skated between 1917 and the present.

SimLeague Hockey provides an opportunity for hockey enthusiasts to play with teams comprised of the greats, while also learning about them and their history. It also offers fierce competition among owners over a full 82-game season and playoffs.

Competition becomes intense as owners trade strategies and banter in the Forums, while the games are played on the simulated ice. This brings together some of the most passionate and brightest hockey fans worldwide and creates a sense of community for everyone.

To start, owners are given 50 million units to build a team of 23 players - four forward lines of three players each (centers and wings), three pairings of two defensemen, three goalies and two bench players to replace fatigued or injured players.

Each player is given his actual league stats from taht season, provided a defensive rating created in conjunction with the NHL and offered any approximated stats required to even the playing field across many generations and styles of professional hockey.

After making crucial decisions on some of the final roster spots, owners name their team, choose an arena and are assigned to a league with 23 other owners. Leagues are randomly split into two conferences, each divided with two divisions of six teams. A head-to-head game schedule is then generated and the owner's role switches from GM to the team's coach.

Owners are given the opportunity to set lines, form defensive pairs, pick an offensive style and determine a defensive aggressiveness. They also choose a starting goalie and his backup, decide the netminder's playing time, strategize late-game line shifts, and manage a 20-player active roster through injuries and even more.

Once the season gets under way, two regular season games are simulated each day for 41 days. During the season, every team and individual statistic is recorded to better track performance, assess the success of different strategies, and provide insight in to league leaders and trophy candidates.

The top teams in each conference will enter the playoffs to vie for a championship - not to mention pride and prizes.

The further an owner advances in the postseason, the better the prizes. Just making the playoffs reduces the price of the owner's next SimLeague team by a $1. Making it to the Finals increases that savings to $3. The league champion also wins Reward Points that can be redeemed for free SimLeague Hockey teams, T-shirts, Fathead.com or Amazon.com gift certificates and more in our Reward Center.

The WhatIfSports hockey simulation engine uses every available stat to simulate each game down to the second. Comprehensive research has uncovered the exact probabilities of nearly every occurrence in a game and SimLeague Hockey creates the most accurate simulation available by utilizing some of the worlds most extensive and detailed statistical modeling.

Even the NHL itself has utilized the impressive WhatIfSports hockey simulation engine to drive its "No Lockout Challenge" and to help NHL.com's "Quest for the Best Tournament" of all-time single-season teams and the "Canadian Quest for the Best Tournament" of all-decade teams comprised solely of Canadian–born players.

Full season leagues cost just $9.95 for over a month's worth of entertainment and competition in addition to the chance to win great prizes.

Fans can build and coach a team of hockey greats. Remember, you can't score without taking a shot. So take your shot today and sign up here and see what happens.