Season structure of the NHL Season structure of the NHL The season structure of the National Hockey League (NHL) is divided into the regular season and the Stanley Cup playoffs. In the regular season, which generally runs from early October through early April, teams play 82 games which determine their standings. The three highest-placed teams in each division and two wild card teams per conference enter the playoff elimination tournament to determine the Stanley Cup champion. Since the 1995–96 season, each team in the NHL plays 82 regular season games, 41 each of home and road. In all, 1,271 games are scheduled (480 of them
Frank J. Selke Trophy than any other player. Guy Carbonneau, Jere Lehtinen and Pavel Datsyuk are tied for the second-most wins, with three apiece. The Montreal Canadiens and the Detroit Red Wings have won the trophy the most times, with 7 awards apiece. The team with the greatest number of unique winners are the Red Wings with 4—Sergei Fedorov (twice), Steve Yzerman, Kris Draper, and Datsyuk (three times)—all coming since 1994. There has been only one instance in which a Selke Trophy winner was also awarded the Hart Memorial Trophy for Most Valuable Player when Sergei Fedorov captured both trophies during the 1993–94 NHL