NHL Clinching Scenarios 2026-27

Clinched: the club goes through in every way the rest of the season can go — even losing every game left in regulation, while the clubs chasing it take every point they can, two from each win and one from each overtime loss between them.

Eliminated: even winning every game left, and with every other result going its way, the club cannot finish in a playoff place.

Clinch: the fewest more points that put a club through whatever else happens. Its own games count both ways — every point it does not take from an opponent goes to that opponent, and even a win in overtime gives the loser one.

Out below: with fewer more points than this, a club is out whatever else happens; with this many it still has a way through if the other results go its way.

While games are left, a club level on points with another is counted as finishing behind it when deciding a clinch, and ahead of it when deciding an elimination, so neither is called before points alone settle it. Once a conference has no games left, a tie still standing across a line is settled by the league’s own standings, which carry its tiebreakers.