What's Next for Rink Rats: A New Card Game and Two More Books

It's been a busy year.

Between coaching, teaching, family, and building this brand in the hours that were left over, Rink Rats has been quietly growing in the background. Not much of it showed up online. All of it was happening.

Here's where things stand, and what's coming.

The first book was a prototype

That's the honest version.

The Rink Rats: A Fun Workbook for Learning Hockey went out into the world as a test. We wanted to know whether kids would actually sit down with an off-ice hockey workbook, and whether parents and coaches would see the value in it.

The answer came back louder than we expected. Families told us their kids were finishing it in a weekend and asking for more. Coaches ordered bundles for their teams. Local shops in Squamish took it on. One parent told us their five-year-old was explaining offside at the dinner table.

That's the feedback that tells you something is working. It's also the feedback that tells you it's time to build the real thing.

Some things we didn't plan for

A hockey dad in Ontario got excited enough about Rink Rats that he came on board as our rep out east. We didn't go looking for that. He found us.

We've had multiple requests to translate the workbook into more languages. That wasn't on the roadmap either, and now it's something we're seriously working on.

And we've started sponsoring minor hockey tournaments for the youngest players, with more requests coming in. Getting Rink Rats into the hands of kids at their first tournaments is about as close to the point of all this as we could hope for.

None of that was planned. All of it tells us we're building the right thing.

What we learned

A few things became clear pretty quickly.

Kids ages 5 and kids ages 12 need different books. The first workbook tried to serve both, and it did a decent job, but a seven-year-old and an eleven-year-old are in completely different places with the game.

Kids want more. The activities that landed hardest were the ones that made them think, not just colour. Reading a scoreboard. Understanding why a line change happens. Figuring out where they're supposed to be on the ice.

And parents wanted something to do together. A lot of the value wasn't the kid working alone. It was the kid and the parent going through a page and talking about it.

What's coming

Two new workbooks, built for specific ages.

We're in the middle of writing both. Getting Started in Hockey is built for ages 5 to 8. Be Game Ready for Hockey is for ages 9 to 12. More in-depth, more detailed, and a lot more purposeful about what each page is actually teaching.

Jonny, Snipes, Chirp, Blades, Rocky, and Swiss are all back, and they've got more to do this time.

Rink Rats All Star Hockey — a card game.

This is the one we're most excited about. It's a hockey card game for kids ages 5 to 12 that teaches how the game actually works. Players build a line, battle for the puck, pass, shoot, take penalties, and learn to read the play.

Fast rounds. Simple rules. Learn it in minutes and play it at the kitchen table, on road trips, or between periods.

It's in testing right now with prototype decks out in the wild. Made in Canada, launching this fall.

The first book stays.

If anything, it's found its role. At $12.99 it's the easiest way to find out whether this clicks with your kid before committing to anything bigger. Shorter, simpler, and built to be finished — which for a lot of young players is exactly the point.

Think of it as the first shift. Try it, see if your kid takes to it, and the newer books are there when they're ready for more.

Off the ice and off the screen

That's the thread running through all of it.

Hockey families spend a lot of time in cars, in hotel rooms, in waiting areas between games. That time usually goes to a screen. We think there's a better option, and we think kids learn more when learning feels like play instead of practice.

That's the whole idea. Learn the game. Love the game.

We're still in the early phases of this. There's a lot more to build. But between the new books, the card game, a rep out east, translation work, and tournaments to sponsor, the future looks bright from where we're standing.

More soon.