How many games in an NHL season? The 84-game schedule and how the NHL works

How many games in an NHL season? From 2026-27 the answer is 84 per team, up from 82, which makes 1,344 regular-season games across the league. Every club plays 42 at home and 42 on the road between 29 September 2026 and 10 April 2027. The change came with the collective bargaining agreement the league and the players ratified in June 2025, which also cut the preseason to four games per team at most. It is the first 84-game schedule since 1993-94.

This page explains how the NHL works from the opening faceoff to the Stanley Cup. It covers who plays whom, how the points and tiebreakers work, what happens in overtime, how the playoff bracket is built and the handful of rules that confuse new fans, like icing and offside. The last section shows what each rule does to a bet. 19+ (18+ in AB, MB and QC).

How the NHL works: the short version

The 84-game schedule: who plays whom

The schedule follows one formula for all 32 clubs, and we checked it against every club’s 2026-27 fixture list. Each team plays its seven division rivals four times each, the eight other teams in its conference three times each and the 16 teams in the other conference twice, once at home and once away.

The two extra games are division games. Under the old 82-game format, each team met five of its division rivals four times and the other two three times, for 26 division games. Now every rival comes around four times, twice at home and twice away, for 28. More of the season is played inside the division, and that matters in the standings. A regulation win over a division rival earns two points and leaves a team you are chasing for a top-three place with none.

How many periods in hockey, and how long an NHL game lasts

An NHL game is three 20-minute periods of stop-time hockey, so the clock stops at every whistle. There is an intermission of about 17 minutes after the first and second periods. Most regulation games finish in around two and a half hours from puck drop. Overtime and a shootout add another 10 to 15 minutes, and a playoff game that goes to multiple overtimes can run well past midnight in the east. Teams dress 20 players, 18 skaters and two goalies, from an active roster of up to 23.

How the NHL standings work: points and tiebreakers

A win is worth two points, whether it comes in regulation, overtime or a shootout. A loss in regulation is worth nothing. A loss in overtime or a shootout is worth one point, which is why a game that goes past 60 minutes hands out three points instead of two. In 2025-26, 326 of the 1,312 regular-season games, 24.8%, went past regulation. The standings rank teams by points. When two teams are level on points, the one that has played fewer games goes ahead, which is the same as having the better points percentage.

When teams finish level on points, the NHL breaks the tie in this order:

1. Fewer games played, which in-season means the better points percentage
2. More regulation wins
3. More regulation and overtime wins, which leaves out shootout wins
4. More total wins
5. More points in the games between the tied teams
6. Better goal difference across the season
7. More goals scored across the season

Wins in regulation rank above overtime wins, and shootout wins count least. The order rewards teams that win in 60 minutes, and a shootout win still earns the full two points.

NHL overtime rules and the shootout

In the regular season, a game tied after 60 minutes goes to five minutes of sudden-death overtime played 3-on-3, with each side down to three skaters and a goalie. The open ice makes it quick. Last season 207 games, 15.8% of the total, were settled in overtime. If nobody scores, the game goes to a shootout, which settled 119 games, or 9.1%.

A shootout starts with three shooters for each team, each taking a breakaway on the goalie. The team with more goals after three rounds wins. If it is still level, it goes to sudden-death rounds, and a player cannot shoot a second time until every eligible teammate has shot. The winning team is credited with one goal in the final score, however many attempts it took.

The playoffs drop the shootout. A tied playoff game goes to full 20-minute periods of 5-on-5, with a normal intermission before each one, and the first goal wins. That is how some playoff games run to a fourth or fifth overtime.

The NHL playoff format

Sixteen of the 32 teams make the playoffs, eight from each conference. The top three teams in each division qualify automatically, and the next two teams in each conference on points take the wild cards, wherever they sit. The bracket is set from there: the division winner with more points plays the second wild card, the other division winner plays the first wild card, and the second- and third-place teams in each division play each other.

Every round is a best-of-seven series, and the team with more points has home ice, hosting games one, two, five and seven. The bracket is fixed, with no reseeding after each round. The division rounds lead to a conference final, and the two conference champions meet in the Stanley Cup Final. Our NHL playoff odds page follows the race for those 16 places, and Stanley Cup winners has every champion since 1927.

Conferences and divisions

The Eastern Conference has the Atlantic and Metropolitan divisions and the Western Conference has the Central and Pacific, with eight teams in each. The seven Canadian clubs are spread across three of the four divisions. Our NHL teams page lists all 32 by division.

Hockey rules: icing, offside and penalties

What is icing in hockey?

Icing is called when a player shoots the puck from their own side of the centre red line all the way across the opposing goal line and nobody touches it. The NHL uses hybrid icing. The linesman judges a race to the faceoff dots and waves icing off if the attacking player would get there first. When icing is called, the faceoff comes back to the offending team’s end, and that team cannot change its players first. A team killing a penalty is allowed to ice the puck.

Offside in hockey

An attacking player cannot enter the offensive zone before the puck. A player is offside when both skates are fully across the blue line before the puck crosses it. If the defending team has the puck, officials let play run as a delayed offside, and the attackers must clear the zone and tag up before coming back in.

Hockey penalties and the power play

A minor penalty is two minutes in the box, and it ends early if the team with the extra skater scores. A double minor is four minutes, and a power-play goal ends the first two. A major is five minutes, served in full whatever happens. A misconduct takes a player off for 10 minutes without leaving the team short. While a team is short, it is killing a penalty and the other side is on the power play.

Video review and the coach’s challenge

Every goal is checked by the league’s situation room in Toronto. Coaches can also challenge a goal for offside, goaltender interference or a missed stoppage. A failed challenge costs the team a minor penalty for delay of game, which is why coaches use it sparingly.

Rosters, the trade deadline and key dates

Teams carry up to 23 players on the active roster and dress 20 for each game. Injured players move to injured reserve, and our NHL injury report explains the difference between IR and long-term injured reserve. The trade deadline has been reported for Monday 1 March 2027. After it, clubs cannot trade players again until the season is over, so contenders do their buying before it. Free agency opens on 1 July each year.

What the rules mean for betting

The rules decide how your bet is settled, so it pays to know them before you place one. A standard moneyline includes overtime and the shootout. A 60-minute or three-way moneyline settles on regulation only, so a tie after three periods is its own result. In 2025-26 that result came in 24.8% of games, roughly one in four.

The puck line is the hockey spread, almost always 1.5 goals. A game decided in overtime or a shootout always ends with a one-goal margin, so the favourite at minus 1.5 cannot cover once a game goes past regulation. Of the 1,312 games last season, 745, or 56.8%, were decided by two goals or more. In regulation, a three-goal win was the most common result, ahead of one-goal wins. The empty net is one reason: a team that is behind late pulls its goalie, and the leader often scores into the open net.

Totals usually count overtime, and at most books the shootout adds one goal to the winner, as the final score does. Last season’s final scores averaged 6.25 goals a game. Player props work differently, because goals scored in a shootout do not count towards a player’s statistics. Settlement rules vary by sportsbook, so check yours. Our guides to the moneyline and over/under betting go further, and the NHL betting hub covers how hockey betting works in Canada.

These are the NHL sportsbooks we rate for Canadians, listed by province, with the full comparison on our NHL betting sites page:

To follow the season, the how to watch the NHL in Canada guide has every channel, the NHL power rankings reset all 32 teams each week, and the NHL scoring leaders page tracks the Art Ross race.

NHL rules FAQ

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