# NHL Line Combinations and Depth Charts

One page carries every club's top line, top pair and projected starter, and it never writes one of its own.

**Where the lines come from.** Each club's file in `data/lineups/{TRI}.json` is parsed from a published depth chart. PuckPedia is the primary source for most clubs; Daily Faceoff's line-combination page and the NHL's projected-lineup article are the fallbacks, in that order. Whichever source answered is named on the club's card, with the mode the source itself declares, such as "Depth chart, lines as of 2025-26" or "2026 Offseason (Projected)".

**The clock is printed, not hidden.** Every card carries the source's own last-updated stamp, not the day this site was built. An August depth chart is an August depth chart, and the page says so rather than letting a stale line read as tonight's warmup. The manifest at `data/lineups/index.json` also carries the build's own read time, shown once at the top.

**What a club file holds.** Four forward lines, three defence pairs, a starter and a backup, plus the two power-play units and two penalty-kill units. This index shows the first line, the first pair and the goaltenders; the full chart lives on that club's own file at `/team/{club}/`. Every skater is linked to his canonical player file by official NHL player ID, so a name change or an accent never splits a career.

**Availability.** The manifest carries a status per player where the source published one: IR, LTIR, Scratched, Day-to-day, Suspended, with the source's own note. A player the source lists as out is drawn in coral on this page and carries that note in his tooltip. No status is inferred.

**What the page refuses to do.** It does not invent a line for a club whose source did not answer; that card prints the reason instead. It does not score or rank a line, and no chemistry figure is computed anywhere here. Confirmed starters for a given night are a separate question with a separate source, and they live on the goalie start board at `/goalies/`.