IceHL

Chris Smith
IceHL Commissioner
Seattle Aviators GM

Founded in 2008 as a community design project on Icethetics, the IceHL is the world's only crowd-sourced fantasy hockey league. Readers contribute by suggesting team names as well as designing logos and jerseys. Every decision is made by a vote of the community.

In 2010, the IceHL added general managers and began operating a fantasy league on ESPN. At its peak, the IceHL was made up of 44 teams across three ESPN fantasy leagues. Currently, there are 20 teams in the primary ESPN league and another 14 in a spin-off secondary league called the IceHA.

How It Works

Normally, the IceHL functions year-round with the fantasy league during hockey season and design contests through the summer. (Except we skipped the summer of 2017 for a big 10th anniversary reboot next summer!)

If you'd like to contribute artwork, just keep an eye out for design contests. They'll be announced here and on Twitter via @icethetics and @theIceHL. Anyone can submit and vote!

If you'd like to be a fantasy GM, just know that we have dozens of dedicated GMs and very low turnover. But if you'd like to be considered for GM opportunities, scroll down the page and sign up for the IceHA Waiting List.

10th Anniversary

In the summer of 2018, the IceHL will celebrate its 10th anniversary with a reboot. It's a chance to start the league from scratch — if that's what the voters choose to do.

Icethetics readers will decide whether they'd like to keep any existing identities, then create all new ones from scratch.

IceHL Team Information

Chris Smith
IceHA Commissioner

TBA
IceHA Deputy Commissioner

The IceHL Project has always been an ambitious one — lots of design contests and lots of team. At one point we simply had too many teams and too many ESPN leagues for me to be able to manage it all properly.

By the 2014-15 season, we had 44 teams across three leagues, the IceHL East, IceHL West, and IceHL World. That's a lot of GMs to manage and a lot of teams to track. In 2016-17, we contracted four teams and merged the remaining World teams to the East and West leagues.

Over the summer of 2017, I realized 40 teams was still too many and even contemplated shuttering the fantasy league for a season for a full reboot in 2018. But this community is unlike any other group of people I know. I couldn't simply send everyone away.

In order to both lighten my workload and keep all the GMs involved, the decision was made to reduce the IceHL to a single 20-team league and create a spin-off league called the IceHA, managed by a Deputy Commissioner.

The IceHA will serve as a feeder league. As GM openings come up in the IceHL, they will be filled by qualified IceHA GMs.

In 2017-18, the IceHA will comprise 14 teams but be permanently reduced to 12 teams in 2018-19. Unless two GMs voluntarily resign, the clubs that finish 13th and 14th will be contracted.

IceHA Team Information

Though the fantasy leagues have contracted over the last two seasons, there are still 44 IceHL franchises in existence. With only 34 GMs this season, that leaves 10 teams inactive.

Four were contracted by a vote of the Icethetics community in 2016. They are now officially defunct, unlikely to return to the league.

Six other teams were simply left unmanaged this season as they were not claimed by one of our existing GMs.

In 2018, the IceHL reboot will establish a new group of 32 teams — though some of the existing identities may be carried over.

Unmanaged Teams

Defunct Teams