Pocket Hockey Manager - Tutorial & Feature Guide

Pocket Hockey Manager (PHM) is a long-term hockey management game: you build and run a club over multiple seasons, not just a single match. You don't control players directly during games. Instead, you make the decisions that shape team performance - roster, contracts, training, lines, energy, tactics, finances, arena, staff - and let the outcome play out in the simulation.

PHM is also a persistent multiplayer game. The other teams in your league and the managers you meet in the transfer market are part of the same environment, run by real people. Their decisions affect your team, just as your decisions affect them.

You are building a hockey organization, not just assembling a collection of highly rated players.

1. The Beginning

What is PHM?

PHM combines hockey management with a persistent multiplayer economy and competition system - your team develops over time instead of resetting after every match. The core game loop repeats every season:

1. Build and manage your roster.
2. Handle contracts and salaries.
3. Train and develop players.
4. Manage player energy and availability.
5. Build effective lines and choose tactics.
6. Play the scheduled matches.
7. Earn and manage money.
8. Develop your arena and organization.
9. Use the player market to improve your team.
10. Compete for the playoffs, promotion, or survival.
11. Repeat and improve over multiple seasons.

Every part of this cycle affects the others. A better player boosts results but also raises salary costs. A bigger arena increases matchday revenue but requires upfront investment. A trade can improve the roster immediately while wrecking established chemistry. Training raises a young player's future value, but training effectiveness depends on energy.

Starting a new team

New teams usually start with enough money to acquire relatively strong players, but that doesn't mean the same level as an established club - older organizations have built up an advantage over time through players, facilities, staff, finances, experience, and development. Don't spend all your money just because you can. You're laying the foundation for a club that has to stay competitive and financially healthy for many seasons.

Your role as manager

Managing in PHM means constantly balancing competing priorities:

• Immediate performance versus long-term development.
• Player ability versus chemistry and tactical fit.
• Playing your best players versus preserving their energy.
• Buying talent versus maintaining financial stability.
• Investing in players versus investing in the arena and organization.
• Winning now versus building a stronger team for future seasons.

Few of these choices have one correct answer in every situation.

2. Your First Game

Prepare your lineup

Before a match, look beyond individual player ratings. Weigh these when picking a lineup:

• Player ability
• Player energy
• Player traits
• Existing chemistry
• Shared history between players
• Tactical fit
• Injuries and player availability
• Temporary player effects

The highest-rated players don't automatically form the best possible combination.

Build your lines

Building lines is one of the most important strategic decisions in PHM. Which player will play big minutes?

Choose your line tactics

PHM lets you set line-specific tactics on top of your lineup. When preparing for a match, think about the whole combination:

• Who's playing
• Who's playing together
• How much energy they have
• What traits and chemistry they bring
• Which tactical approach you choose

Match preview

The match preview lets you prepare for the upcoming match before it's simulated. Since matches are simulated rather than manually controlled, this preparation is where most of your influence on the outcome actually happens.

Match simulation

Matches are simulated automatically - you don't control individual players during the match. Your management decisions shape the conditions the simulation runs on: lineup construction, player selection, energy, development, chemistry, line composition, and tactics all feed into the team's preparation.

Match report

After the match, the match report lets you review what happened. It covers, among other things:

• Shots
• Scoring chances
• Goals
• Penalties
• Power plays
• Hits
• Saves
• Game momentum chart

Don't judge a management decision purely on the final result. One result is just one event in a much longer season.

Game flow and momentum

PHM tracks the match's momentum and flow throughout the game, so you can see how control shifted over time instead of just looking at the final score. The system factors in puck possession, shots, scoring chances, goals, hits, power plays, penalty kills, and saves, and can display the result as a momentum timeline after the match - conceptually similar to an NHL-style game flow chart.

3. Players

Players are more than ratings

A player's attributes matter, but they don't tell the whole story. Player traits and training success can change the direction of a career.

Age

Players age a year every season, which affects whether a player is an immediate boost, a long-term investment, or an aging asset that should be valued differently. A young player has more time to develop; an older player can offer stronger immediate value depending on his ability and role.

Player traits

Player traits are part of a player's identity and affect chemistry and lineup fit. Don't judge them in isolation - their value depends partly on the players around them and the lineup you're building.

Player history and chemistry

Players build chemistry through a shared playing history, so lineup changes can cost more than simply swapping one rating for another. If a line has built strong chemistry over many matches and you find a slightly better individual player, replacing the current player still might not be the right call if it sacrifices that chemistry.

4. Player Development & Training

Training is a long-term investment

Players train through programs that you manage. Treat training as part of a long-term development strategy, not just a way to improve the lineup immediately - a developing player can become an important asset both on the ice and in the player market.

Training and energy are connected

Training effectiveness depends on the player's energy, which creates a real trade-off: players lose energy in matches, overuse hurts performance and training, rest restores energy, and higher energy supports more effective training.

There's no universally correct answer to whether a player should play or rest - it depends on your upcoming schedule and development priorities.

Training programs

You manage training programs directly, so your choices should reflect the role you want for a player and the team's long-term needs. Manager-Pro adds ready-made training program templates to speed up repetitive tasks.

5. Energy, Injuries & Player Condition

Energy

Player energy is a management resource that changes over time: rest restores it, overuse drains it, and it affects both match performance and training effectiveness. Manage it across your whole schedule, not just before the next match.

Rest versus immediate performance

Constantly playing your strongest players maximizes short-term lineup strength, but overuse hurts their performance and training. A good manager weighs future matches, not just the current one.

Injuries

Players can get injured and miss matches - how many depends on severity, and an injury can force you to rework lines, adjust tactics, and reconsider how hard you push the players who remain. Injuries matter because they add uncertainty to lineup planning: a lineup that looks ideal today might not be available for the next match.

6. Player Chemistry & Lineup Building

Why chemistry matters

PHM's chemistry system means players aren't independent units - they build chemistry with their teammates through shared history, and traits shape that further. As a result, the strongest lineup on paper isn't always the strongest lineup in practice.

Think in combinations

When building a line, weigh the interaction between individual ability, traits, existing chemistry, shared history, energy, and tactical fit. A player's value is partly context-dependent - the same player can be more valuable in one line than another purely because of his relationships with his teammates.

Changing a working line

Don't assume a higher-rated replacement is automatically an improvement. If an established line is playing well with strong chemistry, swapping a member needs a clear reason - a small rating improvement rarely justifies losing chemistry built up over time.

7. Contracts & Negotiations

Contracts are strategic commitments

Player contracts set long-term salary commitments and tie the lineup directly to the team's finances. Signing a player is as much a financial decision as a sporting one - you're committing part of the club's future budget to him.

Extension contracts

To keep a player already on your team, send him an extension offer. He won't respond immediately - he'll mull it over for a while before announcing his decision, so contract negotiation always takes a bit of patience. Extensions can be offered until the trade deadline.

Plan extensions early

Waiting until the last moment to lock down an important player is a risk you don't need to take. As the trade deadline approaches, your options shrink if he doesn't agree to an extension or your lineup plans change.

Free-agent contracts

Free agents can receive offers from any manager, and the player picks whichever contract he thinks is best - a decision that usually takes a few days and doesn't resolve immediately. This creates real competition: you can make an attractive offer and still lose the player to a better one from another team.

Buyouts

Player contracts can be bought out. This is useful when a player no longer fits your sporting or financial plans, but the cost means walking away from a contract is never free.

Contracts and trades

Contract decisions can interact with pending trades - a player may be tied to a trade while contract actions are being considered. Track a player's transaction status before making major lineup commitments.

8. Transfers & Player Market

A player-driven market

PHM uses a fully free-floating player market - prices are set by supply and demand rather than fixed AI prices, so the market is shaped directly by other real managers' decisions. Player value moves with ability, demand, supply, age, development potential, contract situation, and other market conditions.

Buying players

Buying a player is an investment, and the purchase price is only part of the cost - also weigh salary, contract, role, chemistry, energy, development potential, and fit with your current lineup. A cheaper player who fits your system can be a better choice than a pricier player with a higher individual rating.

Selling players

Selling brings in cash and frees up salary space, but it can also weaken the lineup or remove a player with valuable chemistry. Before selling, weigh what you're actually giving up:

• Current playing ability
• Line chemistry
• Future development
• Roster depth
• Potential market value

Trade offers

Managers negotiate directly with each other through trade offers, which can include both players and cash - a more flexible approach than a simple purchase. Offers can stay pending and carry closing or expiration conditions.

Trading with real managers

Because real managers run the other teams, there's no guarantee the player you want is available at the price you expect. Another manager may value him differently, have a different lineup need, or simply refuse to sell - the transfer market is part of the game's social and strategic competition.

Trade deadline

Trades and extension contracts are valid until the trade deadline, which falls in the latter half of the regular season - after that, these actions are restricted, making the deadline an important strategic checkpoint. Before it arrives, ask yourself:

• Which positions need strengthening?
• Which players need an extension?
• Which players might be worth selling?
• Do you need more depth?
• Are you building for this season or future seasons?

9. Season Schedule

Regular season

The regular season runs four matches a week, creating a recurring management rhythm: prepare lineups, manage energy, track injuries, evaluate results, and plan for upcoming matches - round after round.

The season is a continuous management problem

Because matches are played throughout the season, decisions shouldn't be made in isolation. Playing an important player every match can win you several games in the short term, but overuse hurts performance and training - resting him costs strength today but leaves him sharper for later matches.

Trade deadline

The season includes a trade deadline in the latter half of the regular season - trades and extensions are available until then and restricted afterward. It creates a natural point where you have to decide whether your current lineup is good enough for the rest of the season.

Playoffs

The playoffs are played as best-of-three series, which demands more than a single-match mindset - lineup, energy, injuries, and roster depth all matter across multiple games.

10. League System, Promotion & Relegation

League competition

The regular season decides the league table, and each league has its own referees - part of the competitive environment you play in.

Relegation

At the end of the regular season, the bottom two teams drop to the division below. That gives a manager near the bottom of the table a very different goal than one at the top - for a struggling team, survival can matter more than aggressive long-term investment.

Promotion

The playoff winner of each sister league is promoted to the division above, giving every team an incentive to peak right when the season reaches its decisive stage.

Different teams, different goals

11. Playoffs

The playoffs are played in best-of-three series, which changes how you should think about the end of the season - reaching the playoffs isn't the same as being ready to win a series. Managers should weigh player availability, energy management, injury depth, line chemistry, tactical choices, and lineup quality.

The playoff stage is where your decisions from the entire season come under pressure.

12. Team Finances

Your cash balance

Every team has a cash balance representing the financial resources available to the organization, and it has to cover both immediate expenses and longer-term investments.

Transaction log

PHM provides a transaction log where you can review financial events and see where money comes from and where it goes. Good financial management starts with understanding your actual cash flow, not guessing at it.

Salaries tie the lineup to the finances

Players aren't free to maintain - contracts create salary commitments. The better players you get, the higher the salaries you'll typically have to pay, and higher salaries raise the team's ongoing expenses - which increases the need for sustainable revenue at the same pace.

A lineup that looks brilliant on the ice can still be a poor management decision if its costs put the organization under too much financial pressure.

The wider team economy

The financial system forms an interconnected chain: players demand salaries, which affects the team's finances; home matches bring in an audience within the limits of the arena's capacity, and that audience brings kiosk and sponsor revenue; that revenue can then be invested in the arena and staff, which supports sporting success and progress in the league.

Improving one link in the chain can affect the others.

13. Sponsors & Revenue

Sponsors

Sponsors bring in team revenue - you can secure sponsorship for individual home matches or lock in a season sponsor. Staff can also improve sponsor revenue, another link between organizational development and finances.

Kiosk revenue

The kiosk sells food and drinks at home matches, so kiosk revenue tracks home-match attendance and is part of the wider matchday economy.

Audience capacity

Your arena's audience capacity determines how many spectators can attend, and increasing it can raise the team's home-match revenue: more capacity means a greater possible audience, which in turn means greater possible matchday revenue.

The key word is possible. Treat arena investment as part of your overall financial strategy, not an automatic source of profit.

14. Arena & Facilities

Developing your arena

Your arena develops over time. One major investment is audience capacity - a bigger arena allows for a larger audience and increases the team's home-match revenue potential.

You can also develop other facilities at the arena to support player and matchday conditions.

Don't treat the arena as separate from the team

Arena development ties into the rest of your organization - money spent on the arena is money not spent on players or elsewhere, but stronger matchday infrastructure supports future revenue. The best investment depends on your club's current situation.

15. Staff

Staff can be hired to improve the organization - they raise team performance and sponsor revenue, giving you a way to strengthen the club without simply buying better players. Weigh staff investment alongside lineup, arena, and financial decisions.

16. Daily Activity

One strategic decision per day

Daily Activity gives you one strategic decision per day. The options carry different benefits and trade-offs, so the best choice depends on your team's current situation - the goal isn't to act as often as possible, but to make a useful choice at the right time.

Think beyond today's match

Since you only get one decision a day, don't default to the same benefit every time. Base it on:

• Upcoming matches.
• The lineup's current condition.
• Your financial situation.
• Long-term development goals.
• Your position in the league.

17. Matches, Match Reports & Game Flow

Matches are simulated

PHM is a management simulation - you don't control players by hand during a match. The simulation evaluates the conditions your management decisions created, so your most important match decisions happen before the puck drops:

• Lineup selection.
• Line construction.
• Energy management.
• Player development.
• Handling injuries.
• Player chemistry.
• Line tactics.

Understanding the result

A match result is an outcome, not a complete explanation. The match report and game flow data let you dig into what actually happened and how the match unfolded.

Momentum

PHM tracks the match's momentum minute by minute, factoring in things like:

• Puck possession
• Shots
• Scoring chances
• Goals
• Hits
• Power plays
• Penalty kills
• Saves

The resulting timeline shows how the balance of the match shifted over time.

18. Social / MMO Features

Real managers create the market

PHM is an MMO-style management game - other teams are run by real managers, which changes how you should think about the game. Other managers:

• Own competing teams.
• Buy and sell players.
• Influence player prices.
• Compete for free agents.
• Send trade offers.
• Compete for league success.
• Influence the player-driven economy.

The market can't be treated like a static single-player transfer list.

Supply and demand

Prices move with supply and demand as managers buy, sell, develop, and search for players. A player who's cheap today can get more expensive as demand rises, while one with little demand can be hard to sell no matter his ability.

The Town Square

The Town Square is PHM's social and chat hub, where managers can talk with each other. Remember to behave appropriately! It complements the player-driven economy by giving managers a place to chat within the persistent game world.

19. Fair Play & Fraud Prevention

PHM runs on a player-driven economy, so protecting the integrity of transactions matters. Fraud-prevention mechanisms detect suspicious activity, and administrators can investigate suspicious trades or contracts and cancel transactions when necessary - to protect:

• The integrity of the transfer market.
• The competitive environment.
• Other managers from abuse.
• The long-term health of the in-game economy.

Use the game's transaction systems properly - suspicious transactions are reviewed when necessary.

20. Manager-Pro

Manager-Pro is a subscription focused on convenience and management support: lineup templates, training program templates, a player watchlist, no ads, and a team page color theme editor.

These features streamline repetitive tasks - they don't replace the core gameplay.

21. How the Systems Fit Together

The most important thing for a new manager to understand: PHM's systems are interconnected.

Lineup and finances

Better players raise sporting performance, but their contracts create salary obligations - building the lineup affects finances, and finances limit the lineup you can sustainably maintain. Lineup quality therefore directly affects salaries, salaries affect cash flow, and cash flow affects how much you have available for future lineup decisions.

Lineup and chemistry

Buying a stronger individual player doesn't automatically produce a stronger lineup - changing a line can cost established chemistry, so the right call depends on both individual ability and how the player fits his teammates.

Lineup and energy

Constantly playing your strongest players increases immediate match strength, but overuse hurts performance and training - energy management shapes both short-term and long-term results.

Energy and training

Training effectiveness depends on energy, so resting players can be part of a development strategy, not just preparation for the next match.

Injuries and roster depth

Injuries can sideline players for multiple matches depending on severity, so a lineup without depth is vulnerable even when the first-choice lineup is excellent.

Market and finances

The player market lets you turn money into players and players into money, but because prices move with supply and demand, there's no guarantee a player will keep his value later.

Contracts and the market

Contract situation is one factor affecting market value - a player on an unfavorable contract is effectively a different asset than an identical player on a favorable one.

Arena and revenue

Audience capacity drives home-match revenue potential; the kiosk earns from the home-match audience, and sponsors bring in further revenue - all of it available to reinvest in the organization.

Staff and performance

Staff can improve both team performance and sponsorship revenue, so organizational investment can directly complement player investment.

League progress and finances

Sporting success can lead to promotion, while relegation resets the competitive environment you're in - your financial strategy needs to support the level you're aiming for and stay sustainable once you get there.

22. The PHM Economy in Practice

Think of the team's finances as one continuous cycle, not a list of separate features. Players require contracts and salaries, which create ongoing expenses. Home matches open the door to matchday revenue: the arena's capacity determines how many spectators fit, the kiosk sells food and drinks to the audience, and sponsors add revenue on top. Staff can raise sponsorship revenue and team performance, while arena investment grows the organization's future revenue potential. Sporting success decides your position in the league, and league progress creates new competitive challenges - all of which feeds back into your next lineup and finance decisions.

The dangerous side of the same cycle

The same system can also work in the opposite direction: overspending leads to a negative balance, and a balance that stays negative too long tips the club into bankruptcy.

A brief cash crunch isn't the same as bankruptcy - a team can run a negative balance for a while, but only for a limited time. Liquidity matters.

23. Loans

Teams can take out loans to finance operations. Loan term options are 30, 90, 180, or 365 days.

A loan funds an important investment but also creates an obligation - before taking one out, check whether the investment actually fits your future cash flow. Debt can strengthen the organization, but carrying too much of it makes the club more vulnerable.

A loan can be repaid early, with a 1% early-repayment fee.

24. The Trade Deadline as a Strategic Checkpoint

The trade deadline falls in the latter half of the regular season - trades and extension contracts are valid until then, and both are restricted afterward, splitting the season into two distinct management phases.

Before the deadline

• Strengthen weaknesses
• Sell players who no longer fit the plan
• Negotiate extensions
• Look for trade opportunities
• Build playoff depth

After the deadline

Once it's passed, you can no longer make these lineup changes, so the team you've assembled has to carry you through the rest of the competition - which makes the deadline a natural point to review the whole organization, not just one position.

25. Long-Term Strategy

Build for more than one season

Players age a year every season, while the organization builds up an advantage over time through players, facilities, staff, finances, experience, and development - a good long-term strategy plans for what your team looks like next season, not just today.

Young players versus immediate strength

A young, developing player is a long-term investment; an older player can offer more immediate value. Which is right depends on your competitive position and financial situation.

Promotion versus survival

If you're chasing promotion, aggressive investment can make sense if it gives you a realistic shot. If you've just been promoted, survival matters more - playing every match like you have to win it all just creates unnecessary financial pressure.

Don't optimize one system in isolation

One of the easiest mistakes for a new manager is optimizing a single metric - for example:

• Buying overly expensive players
• Ignoring salary costs
• Ignoring chemistry
• Spending all available cash on transfers

Each of these looks reasonable on its own, but together they produce a weaker organization.

26. Beginner Mistakes to Avoid

• Buying overly expensive players. You'll be bankrupt in no time.
• Ignoring energy. Overusing players hurts both match performance and training.
• Ignoring chemistry. A familiar line can outperform a collection of individually stronger players.
• Waiting too long on contracts. Extension offers take time to resolve, and the trade deadline eventually shuts them down.
• Spending all available cash. A positive balance today doesn't guarantee a healthy club tomorrow - salaries, investments, loans, and unexpected costs all affect future liquidity.
• Ignoring the market. Prices move with supply and demand, and other managers are competing for the same resources.
• Planning only for the next match. PHM is a long-term game - the best move for one match isn't always the best move for the whole season.