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NHL regular-season teams earn two points for a win. When a game is tied after regulation, each team earns at least one point; the overtime or shootout winner earns a second. Teams tied on points are separated by an NHL-ordered tiebreak sequence, beginning with games played and points percentage, then moving through regulation wins and other statistics.
How NHL regular-season points work
A regulation win is worth two standings points, while a regulation loss is worth zero. If a game is tied after regulation and proceeds to overtime or a shootout, each club earns one point. The winner gets one additional point, for two points total; the losing team keeps the point earned by reaching overtime.
This is the NHL regular-season system. Do not apply a three-point format used by some international tournaments, where regulation wins and overtime or shootout results may carry different values.
How to read the standings columns
- PTS: standings points earned.
- RW: wins in regulation only. Overtime and shootout wins do not count.
- ROW: wins in regulation or overtime. Shootout wins do not count.
- W: total wins by any method, including overtime and shootout.
- DIFF: season goals for minus season goals against, using NHL shootout accounting.
- GF: season goals for, using NHL shootout accounting.
RW, ROW and W are different measures, not interchangeable ways of counting victories. An overtime win increases ROW and W but not RW; a shootout win increases W but neither RW nor ROW.
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How the NHL breaks a tie in points
When two or more clubs have the same regular-season points total, the NHL applies the following criteria in order. Stop at the first criterion that separates the tied teams.
- Fewer games played: this is equivalent to the superior points percentage, or points earned divided by points available.
- More regulation wins (RW).
- More regulation-plus-overtime wins (ROW): shootout wins are excluded.
- More total wins (W): wins by any method count.
- More points in head-to-head games among the tied clubs. When the teams played an unequal number of games against each other, omit the first game played in the city with the extra game. For a tie involving more than two clubs, compare the percentage of available points earned in games among those clubs, excluding odd games.
- Greater season goal differential (DIFF).
- More season goals for (GF).
The NHL’s published procedure sets out this sequence. A shootout victory counts as one goal for standings tiebreak accounting, and a shootout loss counts as one goal against.
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Why games played and points percentage matter
Teams do not necessarily have the same number of games played at every point in the season. A club with fewer games played can be ahead on points percentage even if it has the same points total as a team that has played more often. For that reason, compare points alongside games played rather than treating the raw points total as the whole picture.
The NHL announced that each club will play 84 regular-season games in 2026–27, for 1,344 games league-wide. That is the schedule for this season; while it is in progress, teams may have completed different numbers of games.
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Suppose two teams have equal points and have played the same number of games. If Team A has more regulation wins than Team B, Team A wins the first applicable tiebreak, even if Team B has more total wins. If RW is tied, compare ROW: an overtime win counts there, but a shootout win does not. Only if those categories are also tied does the NHL compare total wins.
This order explains why a standings table’s win total alone may not settle a tie. The league compares the categories in sequence rather than selecting whichever column favors a particular club.
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How head-to-head points work in a multi-team tie
Head-to-head points are not always a simple comparison of all games each club played against the others. If two clubs had an unequal number of head-to-head games, the first game in the city that hosted the extra game is omitted. For a tie involving more than two clubs, the NHL uses the percentage of available points earned among those clubs and excludes odd games. These adjustments keep an unbalanced schedule from being treated as if every tied club had the same number of relevant games.
Sources and rule scope
The tiebreak sequence and column definitions follow the NHL’s official regular-season tie-breaking procedure. The schedule figures are from the NHL’s 2026 announcement. Shootout goal accounting is described in the NHL’s standings tiebreak guidance. The point-award explanation is also consistent with the Seattle Kraken/NHL explainer.
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