About Pro Hockey Sim
Independent fan project · Free · No account required
Pro Hockey Sim is a free, browser-based salary-cap and trade simulator for the 32-team pro hockey league. It started as a weekend project to answer a single question every fan asks during the season: "could my team actually fit that player under the cap?"
The simulator pulls every team's current 23-man roster from the public league API, assigns each player a realistic cap hit, and lets you move players between teams. Trades that would break the $104M ceiling, drop a team below 20 players, or leave a team without two goalies are automatically blocked — same as in real life. You can also start a season, sim full days at a time, and respond to AI-generated trade offers against your chosen team.
What you can do
- Browse all 32 rosters with live cap-usage bars on the league page.
- Open any team to see its full roster grouped by forwards, defensemen, and goalies, sorted by cap hit.
- Build trades from a team page — the cap and roster validators run on every move.
- Run a full season simulation, day by day, with standings and AI trade offers.
- Star favorite teams so they pin to the top of the league grid (saved locally).
Learn more
- How it works — the cap rules, sim model, and trade engine
- Glossary — cap hit, LTIR, RFA, and other terms explained
Frequently asked questions
What is Pro Hockey Sim?
Pro Hockey Sim is a free, independent fan-built salary-cap simulator for the 32-team pro hockey league. You can browse every team's roster, make trades that fit under a realistic $104M salary cap, and simulate full seasons day by day with AI-generated trade offers.
Is Pro Hockey Sim affiliated with the NHL or NHLPA?
No. Pro Hockey Sim is an independent fan project. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by the National Hockey League (NHL), the NHL Players' Association (NHLPA), or any professional hockey team. All team and player names are used for identification purposes only under nominative fair use.
Where does the roster and cap data come from?
Team and roster data is pulled from the publicly available NHL API at api-web.nhle.com. Cap-hit numbers are generated by a heuristic model tuned so an average 23-man roster lands in the realistic $75-85M range. They are not pulled from real contracts.
Is it free?
Yes. The simulator is completely free to use. There is an optional 'Buy me a coffee' tip page if you want to support hosting costs, but no feature is gated behind payment.
Do I need an account?
No account is required. Your selected team, favorites, and recently viewed team are saved locally in your browser via localStorage.
How does the salary cap work in the sim?
The default cap ceiling is $104 million. Any trade that would push a team's combined cap hit above the ceiling is automatically blocked, the same way a real general manager would be blocked by the league. Minimum and maximum roster sizes (20-23 active players, including at least 2 goalies) are also enforced.