Questions from the room

A phone-first web app for EASHL clubs. On Club, every skater gets a Bench Boss letter grade after every game (free for players), the whole club sees it. It adds coaching, film, scouting and chat around that.

EASHL clubs only, for now. Bench Boss is exclusively for Chel: EA NHL's EASHL club mode, 6s and 3s, on Xbox and PlayStation. Versus and other modes may come later.

No. Only the coach or captain signs up and claims the club. Every rostered player is tracked automatically, and on the Club tier every player gets a Bench Boss letter after every game. Players can join free any time to claim their gamertag and see their own trends. Team chat is on Club.

For players, always. For clubs, the coach asks for beta access, then the Coach plan ($9.99/mo or $99.90/yr per club; founding members $7.99/mo) keeps every game saved and graded, with letter grades, custom grading, coaching, Scout and team chat. We only save games for clubs with an active plan or beta access.

We stop saving new games the day the plan ends (a failed card gets 7 days to fix first). Your club's game history, stats, grades and film are held for 45 days. If anyone restarts the Club plan within those 45 days, everything comes back exactly as it was. The coach gets an email about 7 days before, and on day 45 it's deleted for good and can't be brought back. Games played while the club had no plan aren't saved, and EA only keeps a club's last few games. Player accounts stay. Team chat is temporary and is never held for the 45 days. Deleted data isn't refundable; see Terms 10.11.

Yes, on the Club tier. Pick a preset or move plain sliders in Simple mode, or open Advanced for targets, weights and letter cut-offs. You see who goes up or down before saving, and any earlier version is one tap away. That is the point: advanced grading you control. Pick what matters to your club, and Bench Boss grades every game to your rules. Grades are Bench Boss calculations from your club's match stats, not EA ratings.

EA posts results after the game ends. It can take a few minutes, and sometimes longer when EA's servers lag. Keep the app open and grades show up on their own with a “New grades are in” note, no reload. In a hurry? Tap “↻ Check EA now” on the “Data from EA · updated” line (once every 20 seconds); it can only show what EA has posted so far.

Yes. The coach swipes the player's row left (phone) or taps the ✕ on the row (computer) in Last game, then confirms. He comes out of that one game's grading only, the team grades recalculate, and an Undo shows right after. Every removal is logged. Only the coach sees it.

Coach shows each player's top two Work on lines and top Keep doing line. Tap More coaching for the rest (builds, shot locations, extra standards). Players without enough games are folded into one group.

Yes, if alerts are on. You get one “Grades are in” alert per game. Turn it off with the Game results switch in Settings › Alerts. Chat, results and scrim alerts stay quiet from midnight to 9 AM in your own time zone; check-ins always come through.

Tap ☑ in the top bar, then tap every spot you'll play on the rink: LW, C, RW, LD, RD or G. You can pick more than one, and you show up at every spot you pick. Then tap when you're on: Now, one of the next times (starting at the coach's puck time if set, otherwise the next few half-hours), or Custom. Every time shows in your own time zone. Not playing? Tap Out tonight. Pick two or more spots and Bench Boss adds a friendly chirp to the chat post.

The coach sets one Puck drop time for the club at the top of the check-in sheet, in their own time zone. It's saved as an exact moment, so every player sees it in their own local time, and the check-in time buttons start from it. With no Puck drop set, the buttons show the next few half-hours. Only the coach (unlocked with their PIN) can set or clear it.

The player's season grade letter for that spot, in its grade color, then their EA player level (Lvl) from their latest game, then the time they'll be on. EA doesn't share rank points per player, so we don't show RP.

Look at the bell at the top of Team Chat. A plain bell means alerts are on; tap it to open Settings › Alerts. A crossed-out bell with a red dot means they're off; tap it to turn them on.

The Who's playing? card tells you right away: “You're in · C/LW — saved.”, or “— boys got the buzz.” once the team alert goes out. The alert waits about 10 seconds, so if you flip your answer it never sends the wrong call. “Couldn't save — try again.” means tap again.

Only briefly. Messages, reactions, photos and clips are deleted automatically [24 hours] after they're posted. Notifications just say “New message”, and chat never goes into logs, analytics or our own backups. Anyone in the club can still screenshot a message while it's visible. Details: Privacy 8.1.

We keep anonymous daily totals (for example, how many times Refresh was tapped, computer vs phone, English vs French). No gamertag, name, email, IP address or cookie is stored with them, there are no third-party trackers, and chat content is never counted. Details: Privacy 8.2.

Press and hold any message and pick one of six: ❤️ 👍 👎 😂 ‼️ ❓. One per person per message; tap a different one to swap or yours again to remove it. The same menu has Reply and Copy.

On the check-in sheet (☑ in the top bar), Nudge the boys pings only the players who haven't answered yet. It works at most once every 30 minutes, so the room never gets spammed.

Scout names a Key Player for each club: a current member who played at least 2 of the last 5 and stands out. If you're ours, you get a ★ badge; tap it to see how rivals scout us, the same Scout other teams open before puck drop.

Yours. Game times, the “updated” line and quiet hours all follow your phone's own time zone, so clubs spread across the map each see their own clock.

Both. Bench Boss works from your club's public online data, so it doesn't matter what console your guys are on. 6s and 3s are tracked in separate lanes and never mixed.

No, it's about the game. Gaps, passing lanes, protect puck, when to pull up instead of driving the net, and timing hits so they don't get called boarding or interference.

His account is his, not the club's. He keeps his grade history on his Career page, the club keeps his past games, and the coach can restore him if he comes back. Pro Player goes with him.

No. Bench Boss is an independent, unofficial app. It is not endorsed by or affiliated with Electronic Arts or its licensors.

Gamertags and game stats only, never real names. Club pages are opt-in and the inside of the app is private to your club.

Yes, in Québec French. This site's French is a first draft waiting for review by a native Québécois speaker.