Fantasy 101
Never played fantasy sports before? This page is for you. Here's everything about how our PWHL leagues work, in plain English.
The basics
You draft a roster of real PWHL players. Each week, your starting lineup goes head-to-head against another team in your league. Whoever's players score more fantasy points that week wins the matchup. Same idea as a regular-season schedule, just with your team instead of a real one.
Undertow is running two 10-team leagues for the 2026-27 season. Every rule on this page is how those two leagues actually work.
Key dates
| Date | What happens |
|---|---|
| Nov 15 | Sign-ups close |
| By Nov 20 | Leagues assigned, invites emailed |
| Nov 30 to Dec 4 | Live snake draft, after the preseason |
| Dec 5 | Season opens, Week 1 begins |
Your roster
11 players on your roster: 7 starters and 4 bench. On top of that you get 2 injured reserve (IR) spots.
| Slot | What goes there |
|---|---|
| 3 × F | Forwards only |
| 2 × D | Defenders only |
| 1 × UTIL | A flex spot: any forward or defender |
| 1 × G | Goalie |
| 4 × BN | Bench. Any position, scores nothing until you move them into a starting slot. |
| 2 × IR | For injured players. These are separate from your 11 roster spots, so they don't cost you a bench slot. |
You can roster at most 2 goalies at a time. The PWHL only has 12 starting goalies league-wide, so we cap it to keep the position from getting cornered.
Draft day
Our live snake draft runs Nov 30 to Dec 4, after the preseason. Team 1 picks first in round 1, then Team 2, Team 3, and so on; the order reverses each round, so whoever picked last in round 1 picks first in round 2. Everyone gets a timer for each pick. If it runs out, autopick takes the best player left on your queue (or our default rankings if your queue is empty), respecting your open roster slots. You can practice the whole thing beforehand in the draft room.
Scoring
Every stat your players rack up in real PWHL games turns into fantasy points automatically.
| Skaters | Pts |
|---|---|
| Goal | 2 |
| Assist | 1 |
| Power-play point | 0.5 |
| Short-handed point | 0.5 |
| Shot on goal | 0.1 |
| Hit | 0.1 |
| Blocked shot | 0.5 |
| Goalies | Pts |
|---|---|
| Win (regulation) | 4 |
| Win (OT or shootout) | 2.667 |
| Overtime loss | 1 |
| Save | 0.2 |
| Shutout | 3 |
| Goal against | −2 |
An overtime or shootout win scores 2/3 of a regulation win, matching the PWHL's own standings points. We store every score as an exact fraction and only round for display, so nothing gets lost to rounding in a close week.
Setting your lineup
A player locks the moment their own game starts. You can move anyone around freely up until then, even mid-week. Only your starters score; bench players rack up stats too, but they don't count until you start them. Your Team page always shows how many games each player has left that week, which is the best signal for who to start.
Free agents, waivers and trades
- Free agents (unowned players) can be added instantly, unless their game has already started.
- Waivers: drop a player and they sit on waivers for 48 hours before anyone can grab them as a free agent. Waiver priority starts as the reverse of the draft order; winning a claim sends you to the back of the line. First-come-first-served after that (no bidding).
- Trades get a 24-hour review window before they go through, and the commissioner can veto one if something looks off. There's no league-wide vote. The trade deadline is the end of Week 11.
The season and playoffs
The fantasy season runs entirely inside the PWHL's regular season. We never use PWHL playoff games, since only 8 of 12 teams qualify and most fantasy rosters would stop scoring.
- Weeks 1–12 (Dec 5 – Feb 28): fantasy regular season. Fantasy weeks run Monday to Sunday.
- Weeks 13–18 (Mar 8 – Apr 18): fantasy playoffs, in three two-week rounds. Each matchup is the combined score over both weeks.
- The top 6 of each 10-team league make the playoffs. Seeds 1 and 2 get a bye into round 2; round 1 is 3 vs. 6 and 4 vs. 5.
- Playoff seeding ties are broken by: record, then total points scored, then head-to-head record, then a coin flip.
Still have questions? Check the general FAQ on the homepage, or email us. We're happy to walk through anything.