How the NHL Standings Work: Points, OTL & the Wild Card

Two points for any win, one for an overtime loss — why hockey’s table has a column no other sport has, and how 16 playoff spots get decided.

Torch Editorial · 5 min read · Updated August 2026

Hockey standings look familiar until you hit the OTL column. Here’s how the NHL’s points system works, and how a table of 32 teams turns into 16 playoff spots.

The points system

• Win — 2 points. It doesn’t matter how: regulation, overtime, or shootout, a win is two points.
• Overtime or shootout loss — 1 point. Lose after regulation ends tied, and you keep a consolation point. That’s the OTL column.
• Regulation loss — 0 points.

Every game therefore hands out at least two points — but a game that reaches overtime hands out three (two to the winner, one to the loser). That’s why late-season games between rivals that reach overtime are called “three-point games”: both teams gain on everyone else.

Reading the table

Each team plays an 82-game regular season. The columns are games played, wins, losses, OTL (overtime/shootout losses), and Pts — the points total that actually ranks the table. Goals for and against tell you how a team is really performing; a big negative goal difference with a decent points total usually means a run of narrow escapes.

Divisions, conferences, and the wild card

The league is split into an Eastern and a Western Conference, each with two divisions of eight teams. Sixteen teams make the playoffs: the top three in each division, plus the two best remaining teams in each conference regardless of division — the wild cards.

Why the race stays close

The consolation point compresses the standings: even struggling teams collect points steadily, so the gap between a playoff spot and the lottery is often just a handful of points into the final weeks. It’s a designed feature — and it keeps March hockey mattering in more cities.