Best NHL Season Ever: Ranking the Greatest Regular Seasons

No NHL team has ever finished a season undefeated. The closest anyone has come is the 2022-23 Boston Bruins, who set the modern all-time records for wins (65) and points (135) in an 82-game season, and the 1929-30 Boston Bruins, whose .875 points percentage (38-5-1 in a 44-game schedule) remains the best winning rate ever recorded. Every season on this list fell short of perfection in the way that matters most: none finished the playoffs unbeaten either.

This is the ranked leaderboard of the best regular seasons in NHL history and why an 82-game grind against 31 other franchises makes a perfect season close to impossible. All figures are as of the 2026 season.

At a glance: the best NHL regular seasons ever

Rank	Team / Season	Record (W-L-OTL)	Points / Points %	Year
1	Boston Bruins	65-12-5	135 pts / .823	2022-23
2	Montreal Canadiens	60-8-12	132 pts / .825	1976-77
3	Detroit Red Wings	62-13-7	131 pts / .799	1995-96
4	Montreal Canadiens	59-10-11	129 pts / .806	1977-78
5	Tampa Bay Lightning	62-16-4	128 pts / .780	2018-19
6	Boston Bruins	38-5-1	77 pts / .875	1929-30
7	Philadelphia Flyers	25-0-10 (streak)	35 games unbeaten	1979-80
8	Chicago Blackhawks	21-0-3 (streak)	24 games to open season	2012-13

Rows 1-5 rank by regular-season points, the standard NHL measure. Rows 6-8 are separate because they show the best per-game dominance (1929-30) and the two longest stretches without a loss (1979-80 and 2012-13) — a different kind of “best season” than a full-year points total.

How this is ranked

The primary ranking uses regular-season points, the NHL’s own standard for the league’s best team (the Presidents’ Trophy winner). Where seasons are close, points percentage — points earned divided by points available — breaks the tie and lets the 44-game 1929-30 schedule compare fairly with the 82-game modern era. Playoff results are not factored in; several seasons below, including the record-setting 2022-23 Bruins, ended without a Stanley Cup, because a historic regular season and a historic playoff run are two different achievements.

The record: 2022-23 Boston Bruins

The Bruins’ 65-12-5 season is the standard by which every modern NHL season is now measured. They passed the 1995-96 Red Wings and 2018-19 Lightning for wins and broke the 1976-77 Canadiens’ 46-year-old points record with a win over Montreal in their own building. Boston finished with a .823 points percentage across 82 games, built on a stingy defense in front of goaltenders Linus Ullmark and Jeremy Swayman. It is also the sport’s most cited cautionary tale: the eighth-seeded Florida Panthers eliminated Boston in the first round, the biggest gap between regular-season dominance and postseason result in NHL history.

The 1976-77 Canadiens: the gold standard before Boston

For nearly five decades, the 1976-77 Montreal Canadiens were the answer to “what’s the best NHL season ever,” and many historians still argue they deserve the title. Their 60-8-12 record is the fewest losses ever recorded by a team playing more than 60 games, and their plus-216 goal differential has not been approached since. Unlike the 2022-23 Bruins, this Canadiens team backed up its regular season with a Stanley Cup, going 12-2 in the playoffs. Guy Lafleur led the league in scoring that year, and the roster remains a fixture on any greatest NHL players discussion. Montreal followed it with a second dominant year in 1977-78 (59-10-11, 129 points) and a second straight title, two of the eight best regular seasons on record back to back.

1995-96 Red Wings and 2018-19 Lightning: the 62-win club

Before Boston reset the bar, 62 wins was the ceiling. The 1995-96 Detroit Red Wings, led by Scotty Bowman and a roster stacked with future Hall of Famers, went 62-13-7 for 131 points, only to lose in the Western Conference Final. The 2018-19 Tampa Bay Lightning matched the 62-win mark 23 years later at 62-16-4, then suffered the same fate Boston would four years later: a first-round sweep, at the hands of the Columbus Blue Jackets. Both seasons show how often the NHL’s best regular-season teams get upset once the playoffs start.

1929-30 Bruins: still the best winning percentage ever

By raw winning percentage, no team has ever matched the 1929-30 Boston Bruins. Playing a shorter 44-game schedule, Boston went 38-5-1 for a .875 points percentage, a mark that has stood for nearly a century. It is the closest any NHL team has come to a perfect season on a per-game basis, though the shorter slate makes it an imperfect match against Boston’s own 2022-23 record.

The longest unbeaten streaks: as close to perfect as it gets

A single unbeaten streak is the purest test of “how close can a team get to flawless,” and two runs stand above the rest. The 1979-80 Philadelphia Flyers went 35 games without a loss (25-0-10) between October 1979 and January 1980, still the longest in NHL, NFL, NBA, or MLB history. The 2012-13 Chicago Blackhawks opened the lockout-shortened season by earning a point in their first 24 games (21-0-3), the best start to any NHL season on record. Neither streak survived the full schedule.

Why an undefeated NHL season has never happened

Three factors explain why no team has gone undefeated. First, the schedule: 82 games against 31 opponents, many playoff-caliber, makes a zero-loss run statistically improbable. Second, parity: the NHL’s salary cap rules are designed to stop any roster from separating from the pack for long. Third, variance: hockey is a low-scoring game where one bad bounce or one hot opposing goaltender can flip a result, which is also why so many seasons on this list ended in playoff upsets rather than championships. Until one of those factors changes, .875 and 65 wins remain the records to beat.