2026 XHL Hockey Card Set

We're excited to bring hockey back into the PLAAY games fictional fold--welcome to OUR brand of hockey! Welcome...to the XHL!

Let's start by acknowledging that the XHL's roots are in our previous fictional hockey entities, the World Hockey League (2010-17) and Hockey North America (2018-2020). We've age-progressed the rosters of the last HNA season (2019-20) and have dispersed somewhere around 100 players from that league to this one. Guys like Colt Kelly, Curt Connauton, Nick Concannon, Sheldon John Kea and many others are now suiting up in XHL gear. Of course, there's a bumper crop of new stars to get to know. And because this is a league that has money to burn, there are also a number of well-known names from the real-life hockey world available and willing to make a cash grab and skate for an upstart league. More on that in a moment.

We envision the XHL as an alternate, summertime big-time professional hockey league. The XHL has a splashy, cutting-edge, industrial sort of feel to it. Games are played on black ice. (We considered casting the XHL as a roller hockey league, played in outdoor venues--we'll leave that up to you, roll with it if you want to!) Ice or asphalt, the XHL is hard-hitting, fast-moving, high-intensity hockey. You're gonna love it!

There are twenty teams in the XHL, most of them in (as of 2025) non-hockey cities. NOTE that you don't have to use all twenty teams. The league is designed to be well-balanced, with a strong element of parity, top to bottom. We've rated the players close to the center, and thoughtfully distributed overall qualities and symbols so as level the ice for all clubs. You could literally choose any assortment of teams you desired, any number of them, and have a competitive, exciting, realistic pro hockey league.

As we mentioned before, the set includes (32) players from the established pro league who can be signed to the XHL and placed on any team. Basically, as commissioner of the organization, you can assign these players to whomever you choose. Thus, ANY team in XHL can become an instant championship favorite, with the addition of one or more of these real-life hockey stars! The intent isn't to include ALL the real-life star players in your league. Rather, we want you to be able to beef up a favorite team or teams by adding some celebrity splash. Which makes this card set very high on replayability--you could simply re-distribute the stars and create a completely different competitive situation. The XHL is a true "evergreen" card set, one that will always be fresh and open to new competitive twists.

Your XHL cards also include an aggressive rules set that includes a number of interesting wrinkles to make this a hockey league like none other. We've spelled (some of) these out in our "Welcome to the XHL" blog post. Of course, you don't HAVE to implement these rules: the XHL will give you exciting, compelling, lightning-fast hockey action with traditional old-school or contemporary hockey rules.

Welcome to OUR brand of hockey. "Ladies and Gentlemen!...This...IS...the X...H...LLLLLLLLL!!!"