What is Puckdoku?
Puckdoku is a hockey grid game built around NHL player knowledge. The board contains nine cells arranged in three rows and three columns. Each cell represents an intersection between a franchise and a category such as career stats, awards, or teams played. You fill the grid by naming players who satisfy both conditions. The game tracks three metrics: Score out of nine, Shots left, and Uniqueness, which measures how rare your choices are compared to other players.
How to play
- Choose a cell and name a player who meets both its row and column conditions. A team counts only if the player appeared in at least one NHL regular-season or postseason game for it.
- Submit your choice right away. You can use each player only once per grid, and submitted choices cannot be changed.
- Keep an eye on your shot counter. Every selection uses one shot, whether it is correct or not.
- Check your Uniqueness score if you want to compete on the secondary leaderboard instead of only completing the board.
Why play Puckdoku?
Most grid games award the same points for every correct answer. Puckdoku scores Uniqueness separately: filling all nine cells with star players is easy, but earns little, so the real challenge is finding obscure fourth liners who meet both conditions. The rules require detailed knowledge of franchise history, and the repeated Winnipeg relocation warning points to the mistake most players make.
Reading the feedback
Two numbers evaluate every pick. Score counts completed cells out of nine. Uniqueness is calculated as the sum of the popularity percentages of your chosen players, plus 100 for each empty cell. A lower Uniqueness total means you found rarer names. The game provides no color grid and no partial credit. A pick either satisfies both categories or costs you a shot with no result.
Modes
Classic
The default board. The page indicates classic grids are available daily.
Puck Buddies
A second board accessible from the top navigation.
Pyramid
A third board accessible from the top navigation.
Tips & strategy
Relocation is the most documented trap in the rules. Moved franchises count as one continuous entity, so 1990s Winnipeg Jets players belong to the Arizona Coyotes. The rules repeat this warning under a heading that begins "One last reminder."
Retro team categories deliberately break the relocation rule. When a cell names a historical franchise like the Hartford Whalers, relocations are disregarded, so a Nordiques player does not count for the Avalanche.
If you are optimizing for Uniqueness, never leave a cell empty. By the stated formula an empty cell adds a flat 100 to your score, which is worse than any player you could have named.
When a cell pairs two statistical categories, they do not need to have occurred in the same season. When a cell pairs a team with an award or stat, they do.
Popular questions
What exactly counts as a streak?
The rules require completing the board on its release day with all nine selections correct. Extra incorrect attempts along the way are tolerated—the rules give nine correct from twelve total attempts as an example that still counts—but an unfinished board such as eight from nine does not.
Where does the player data come from?
The How to Play panel credits Elite Prospects for player data.
How are connection categories judged?
Categories such as "Played w/" a named player count when the two appeared in an NHL game together. If the other half of the cell specifies a team, they did not need to be teammates on that specific team.
What does the World Juniors category cover?
The rules specify it refers to the U20 top division only.