How Many Sessions, How Many Days

The answer depends on your roster size, your available rink time, and how many evaluators you have.

Start with roster size. Divide your total players by 35. Round up. That is your minimum number of sessions. 70 players means at least 2 sessions. 140 means at least 4.

Factor in rink time. A solid evaluation session runs 45 to 60 minutes. Add 15 minutes between sessions for check-in and evaluator briefing. If you have a two-hour rink slot, you can fit two sessions comfortably. Do not try to squeeze three.

Spread across days if needed. There is no rule that says evaluations must happen in one night. Two sessions on Tuesday and two on Thursday gives better data than four sessions crammed into one chaotic evening. Kids perform better when the rink is not overcrowded. Evaluators stay sharper across shorter blocks.

Evaluator availability matters. Ideally the same evaluators cover all sessions so scoring is consistent across the full roster. If that is not possible, RosterForge's inter-evaluator normalization adjusts for different evaluator tendencies. But consistency is always better than correction.

A model that works. One organization we work with evaluates just over 100 players across 4 eval groups with 4 sessions each spread over two weekends. Every session has 25 to 30 players. Evaluators are briefed once and work all sessions. The draft uses complete, consistent data from every player. It runs like a machine.