How Overtime Losses Count In NHL Standings

OTL means overtime losses. In NHL regular-season standings, it counts losses in overtime or in a shootout that earn one standings point. A regulation loss earns zero. The NHL’s own standings label this combined category OT, while ESPN uses OTL. (NHL standings legend, ESPN glossary)

OTL is still a loss. It appears separately from the L column because it normally carries a different points value, not because the team avoided defeat. To read an NHL record correctly, distinguish wins, zero-point losses and one-point losses before calculating either total defeats or standings points.

Enter a team’s wins, zero-point losses and OTL; the calculator shows its points and percentages.

OTL Earns One Point, While Every Win Earns Two

The NHL awards two standings points for a regular-season win, whether it comes in regulation, overtime or a shootout. Its standings legend assigns one point to an overtime/shootout loss and zero to a loss in the L column. The standard outcomes are: (NHL standings legend)

Game Result	Category	Points
Regulation win	W	2
Overtime win	W	2
Shootout win	W	2
Regulation loss	L	0
Overtime loss	OT or OTL	1
Shootout loss	OT or OTL	1

The points distinction explains why standings do not put every defeat into the same column. An overtime loss and a regulation loss both count as games the team did not win, but they have different effects on its points total.

An overtime win does not go in OTL. It goes in W and earns the same two points as any other win. Likewise, a shootout winner receives two points; the losing team receives the one-point credit recorded under OT or OTL.

For a points calculation, the timing of a win therefore does not change its value. The timing of a loss usually does. That is the distinction to keep in mind when moving from a game result to a team’s season record.

The W–L–OTL record is also a count of games, not just a summary of points. Each completed game occupies one of those categories. Do not add an overtime win to both W and OTL: doing so would count the same game twice and incorrectly award an extra point.

NHL’s OT Column And ESPN’s OTL Column Mean The Same Thing

The abbreviation can look confusing because OT also means overtime when describing the period of play. In the NHL standings legend, however, OT is the combined category for overtime and shootout losses. ESPN makes the loss component more explicit by calling the column OTL.

Neither label tells you how many of a team’s games went beyond regulation. The column leaves out overtime wins and shootout wins because those results are already included in W.

It also does not separate overtime defeats from shootout defeats. A team’s combined OT or OTL total cannot, by itself, tell you which kind of finish produced those losses. You would need a breakdown of the results or the individual game records to establish that split.

This matters when using standings as performance data. OTL describes a points-bearing result category; it is not a complete measure of how often a team played overtime, how often it won after regulation, or how it performed specifically in shootouts.

If two standings providers use different headings, compare their legends rather than treating OT and OTL as different statistics. For the NHL and ESPN tables cited here, the different labels refer to the same combined loss category.

A 30–20–10 Record Means 60 Games And 70 Points

Consider a hypothetical NHL regular-season record of 30–20–10, with no forfeited overtime points. Read the record in W–L–OTL order: 30 wins, 20 regulation losses and 10 overtime or shootout losses.

Record Component	Count	Meaning
W	30	Wins of any type
L	20	Regulation losses here
OTL	10	One-point losses
Games played	60	All three categories

Games played equals W + L + OTL, so this record represents 30 + 20 + 10 = 60 games.

Standings points equal (2 × W) + OTL, so the team has (2 × 30) + 10 = 70 points.

The L column contributes no points, but it still contributes to games played. Leaving it out would make the team’s points percentage look better than it is. Leaving OTL out of games played would also produce an incorrect denominator.

The record does not mean the team lost only 20 games. It lost 30 altogether: the 20 losses in L plus the 10 losses in OTL. The separate column preserves the points distinction without changing the fact that the opponent won those games.

Nor does the record tell you how many of the 30 wins came in regulation. All wins are combined in W for this three-part record. The same limitation applies to the 10 OTL: the record does not show their overtime-versus-shootout split.

For definitions of other columns alongside these results, use our guide to hockey stats abbreviations.

Points Percentage Is Not Win Percentage

The hypothetical 30–20–10 team has won 50% of its games: 30 wins out of 60 games played. Its points percentage is higher because it also earned points in games it lost after regulation.

Points percentage equals PTS ÷ (2 × games played). For this record, 70 ÷ (2 × 60) gives 58.3% of the maximum available standings points.

These percentages answer different questions. Win percentage measures how often the team won. Points percentage measures how much of the available standings-point total it collected. OTL contributes to the second measure but not to the first.

An overtime or shootout defeat therefore has a mixed statistical effect: it adds a game without adding a win, while also adding a standings point. Describing it only as a loss misses the points credit. Describing it as though it were a win overstates the result.

When comparing records, use the same measure for both teams. A win percentage and a points percentage are not interchangeable just because both are displayed as percentages. Check whether the denominator is games played or the maximum points available from those games.

The calculator displays both measures so that the distinction stays visible. If no games are entered, either percentage is unknown rather than zero: there is no played-game denominator from which to calculate it.

OTL Can Change A Comparison Without Adding A Win

Two teams with the same number of wins do not necessarily have the same standings points. Their one-point loss totals also matter. With wins held equal, the team with more credited OTL has more points under the NHL calculation.

That does not automatically make its win percentage higher. Win percentage also depends on how many games each team has played. The full record is needed to distinguish a larger points total from a stronger points rate.

Similarly, comparing only the L column can misrepresent total defeats. A smaller L total does not establish that a team lost fewer games overall; some of its losses may sit in OTL instead. Add L and OTL before making a claim about how often the team lost.

For the 30–20–10 example, “20 losses” is an incomplete description unless it explicitly means the L column. “30 total losses, including 10 one-point losses” preserves both the game outcomes and their standings value.

OTL alone cannot establish why a team reached overtime or whether its results reflect a repeatable skill. The column records outcomes, not the chances, possession or sequence of play that produced them. Use it to interpret the standings first, rather than treating it as a standalone performance rating.

An Overtime Goalie-Pull Exception Can Cost The Point

There is a rare exception to the usual one-point credit. A team that pulls its goalie for an extra attacker in overtime and loses while the goalie is off forfeits that point, unless the removal was for a delayed penalty against the opponent. Rule 84.2 in the NHL’s 2025–26 rulebook sets out the exception.

Minnesota earned zero points this way against Vegas on March 30, 2024. That means L is not strictly limited to regulation defeats. (NHL game report)

For ordinary standings reading, “regulation losses” is a useful shorthand for L. For an exact calculation, zero-point losses is the safer description because it accommodates this exception.

The calculator follows that distinction: enter the official W, L and OT/OTL columns rather than reconstructing the categories solely from whether the game ended before or after regulation. A loss that forfeited its overtime point must not be treated as a credited one-point OTL.

The exception also limits the common statement that reaching overtime guarantees a point. That describes the standard result, but the goalie-pull rule means the credit is not unconditional. The delayed-penalty qualification belongs with the exception; omitting it would make the rule broader than it is.

Playoff Overtime Losses Do Not Earn Standings Points

The one-point credit belongs to the NHL’s regular-season standings system, not the playoff series score. Regular-season games tied after regulation go to a five-minute overtime; if still tied, they use a shootout. Stanley Cup Playoff games instead use successive 20-minute sudden-death overtime periods, with no shootout. (Seattle Kraken’s overtime explainer, NHL rules 84.4–84.5)

A playoff overtime defeat is simply a loss in the series. There is no consolation standings point, and the regular-season W–L–OTL points formula does not describe the series score.

The words “overtime loss” can still describe what happened in a playoff game. What changes is their accounting consequence: the losing team does not receive the regular-season one-point credit for having reached overtime.

Keep the competition context attached to the abbreviation. An NHL regular-season standings table and a Stanley Cup Playoff series are different scoring systems, even when both contain games decided in overtime.

Use The League’s Legend Before Applying The NHL Formula

The NHL interpretation should not be assumed for every hockey league or every table. Check the relevant league’s column legend and points rules before assigning a value to an overtime loss or shootout loss.

For the NHL regular-season tables discussed here, the reading is concrete: W includes all wins, OT or OTL combines credited overtime and shootout losses, and L records zero-point losses. Add all three categories for games played, add L and OTL for total defeats, and use (2 × W) + OTL for standings points.

If another table separates shootout losses, uses a different points system or presents a playoff record, this calculator is not evidence that the NHL method applies. The abbreviation identifies a category only within the rules and legend of the table you are reading.