Player ratings

A skater’s ratings show what he is good at. Nine attributes cover his game, from skating and passing to spirit and endurance, and his Overall sums them up in one number. The attributes are what count on the ice; which of them count most depends on his job and on your tactics. Goalies have their own set, explained on goalie ratings.

Reading the ratings

Every skater has nine attributes and an Overall, and the higher the number, the better. Find them under Rated, at the top of Overview on his player page: a bar for each attribute and a radar with his Overall in the center.

The colors read the number: red for weak, then orange, blue, and green for strong. Overall has its own color scale, separate from the attributes’, and the colors are the same in every league.

The attributes appear as short codes:

Code	Attribute
SKT	Skating
PAS	Passing
PKH	Puck handling
SHT	Shooting
DEF	Defense
PHY	Physical
SPR	Spirit
END	Endurance
FO	Faceoffs

You see ratings in other places too:

• At the top of his page, his Overall: in its color on a wider screen, and on a phone in the bar at the top once you scroll down.
• His player panel, which opens when you click his name, with the same bars and radar.
• The roster. Choose Table, then Ratings under View in the Display menu, to see every player’s Overall (OVR) and all nine attributes side by side. Click a column to sort by it. The Cards view shows a few attributes for each skater: the ones his fit for the role you assigned him rests on, or a standard three for his position when he is on Auto.
• Edit lineup. When you pick a spot, the roster shows the three ratings that count most there under your tactics and that unit’s focus. See lineup.

How he rates in his league

Rated also tells you how good he is where he plays, with a rating out of five beside his league’s emblem. Each bar carries a mark, and the radar a dashed shape, for the middle of the players at his position in that league; the label beside Rated names the league, such as GHL average. Use the rating to see whether he stands out in his league, and the marks to see which attributes lift him above the players he is measured against and which hold him back.

The rating compares his Overall with the middle of everyone at his position on the rosters of his club’s league: forwards (centers and wingers together), defensemen or goalies. Players a club has assigned to its affiliate count with the club, and a player you assign to your affiliate is still rated in your club’s league. Close to the middle fills three of the five marks; above it more, below it fewer, and the further away, the more or fewer. It follows the size of that gap, not his place, so in a league where players sit close together most of them rate in the middle. It says where he stands in this league, so the same player can rate higher in a lower one.

A player without a club, such as a free agent or a retired player, has no league to be measured in, so Rated shows his radar and bars without a rating or marks. The same goes for a player whose position has only a few players in his league.

Your roster as a whole is rated against the other clubs in the same way; see roster rankings. For a skater, Rated also names the role he plays and how well he fits it; see player roles.

What each attribute does

Each attribute matters in its own situations on the ice. Which ones count most for a player depends on his job — his role and his line’s focus — and on your tactics.

Skating

How fast and how well he skates. Skating helps create chances in Dump & Chase, Puck Possession and Transition Rushes; Crash the Net does not ask for it. In defense, every system leans on it except the Conservative Trap, which asks little of it, and so do some penalty kills. It helps a player deliver a body check and slip one, and it counts in the shootout, on an energy line, and when he chases a loose puck after a blocked shot.

Passing

The heart of creating chances. Passing counts in every even-strength system and on the power play, and it is the attribute those chances lean on most. Together with Defense, it also decides whether a lost puck goes down as his giveaway, and the better the defender who goes for it, the likelier that is.

Puck handling

His hands. Puck handling helps him finish a chance, second only to Shooting, and it helps create chances too. It weighs most of all in the shootout. In defense it helps him win the puck back, from a takeaway or a loose puck.

Shooting

How well he finishes. Of all his attributes, Shooting counts most when he tries to finish a chance. A defenseman’s shot also helps create chances in Crash the Net, and it counts on the power play.

Defense

How well he reads and defends the play. Defense is the base of defending in every system, both stopping an attack and protecting the net. It also helps him make the safe pass, take the puck away and slip a check.

Physical

His strength and how well he uses it. Physical counts in delivering and slipping body checks, in the battle in front of the net, in fights, and in resisting injuries. It also helps stop an attack in every defensive system except Aggressive Forecheck and on every penalty kill, and it helps create chances in Crash the Net, Dump & Chase and the Spread power play. See tactics.

Size matters in checks, in defending and in front of the net. A big, heavy player gets more out of his Physical rating there, and a small, light one gets less.

A strong physical game has a cost: together with a dirty streak, a high Physical rating makes a player more likely to take penalties and to drop the gloves.

Spirit

His courage, grit and intensity. Spirit counts in defending in every system, in body checks, in battles for loose pucks and in fights, and it helps create chances in Crash the Net and Dump & Chase.

It is also the mental side of his game:

• He gets more out of a good spell of team momentum and holds up better in a bad one.
• He handles pressure better.
• He keeps his head when a checking line tries to rattle him.
• His play is steadier from shift to shift, with fewer off moments within a game.
• As a captain, he gives the room more leadership. See team spirit.
• He gets more out of practice. See training and development.

Endurance

How much work he can take. Endurance decides how much fitness a game costs him for the minutes he plays, and on light minutes a player with good Endurance can even come out of a game fresher than he went in. It decides how fast he recovers on days without a game, how much hard practice wears him down, and, together with Physical, how well he resists injuries. Every defensive system except the Conservative Trap also leans on it.

The same Endurance carries a player further in a lower league than in the top league, where the game asks more of him. If a player keeps showing Tired, his Endurance may not carry the minutes you give him, and a lighter training program also costs him less fitness.

Faceoffs

How well he takes a draw. The centers on the ice take every faceoff, and the winner’s team starts with the puck. Winning or losing a draw also moves his confidence.

Faceoffs count only at center, so a winger’s Faceoffs help only when he lines up there.

Overall

Overall sums up a player’s attributes in one number. Use it to compare players at a glance, then look at the attributes his job needs.

It is not a plain average. It is weighted by position: a winger’s Overall leans on Passing, Puck handling and Shooting; a center’s also counts Faceoffs and Defense more; a defenseman’s leans on Defense. Two players with the same Overall can be built very differently, so when the numbers are close, the attributes his job needs tell them apart.

Overall never decides a play. Checks, chances and shots all use the attributes. The game uses Overall where it needs one number for a player:

• Stand-ins during a game. When a player sits in the penalty box or is hurt, the best available player by Overall and fitness covers his shift.
• Suggested in Edit lineup weighs his Overall together with his fit.
• Team confidence. The Overall of the players on the ice helps set how many chances each side is expected to make at even strength, and your team’s confidence is judged against that. See team spirit.
• Contracts. It shapes what a player asks to be paid and which leagues he sees himself in.
• Development. A player past junior age who is far too good for the opposition learns less from those games.

On game night

A player’s ratings are his base. On game night his fitness, his form and the mood of the room lift them or pull them down. If a player shows Tired before a game, give him lighter minutes or a night off.

His confidence, his happiness, the dressing room and your team’s momentum all move his game. So do home ice, playing off his position, how well the team knows its tactics, and his chemistry with his linemates. The lift or dent from confidence, happiness, the room and team momentum is limited. A player who starts a game Tired or Exhausted plays well below his ratings. See lineup chemistry and team spirit.

Worth knowing

• Overall never decides a play. It ranks players when the game has to pick one, such as a stand-in during a game.
• Height and weight change what Physical is worth: a big, heavy player gets more out of it, a small, light one less.
• A high Physical rating, together with a dirty streak, makes a player more likely to take penalties and to drop the gloves.
• The same Endurance carries a player further in a lower league than in the top league.
• Overall and the attributes have their own color scales, so the same number can show in a different color.