Longest Winning Streak in NHL History

The 1992-93 Pittsburgh Penguins hold the NHL record for the longest winning streak, with 17 consecutive victories to end the regular season. That run, powered by a roster built around Mario Lemieux and Jaromir Jagr, edged the field by a single game and has stood as the standard for more than three decades.

A winning streak in hockey counts only outright wins, meaning a loss or a tie ends the run immediately, which makes long streaks far rarer than points streaks. Stringing together 15 or more requires weeks of near-perfect play across a demanding schedule. Here is the full leaderboard of the NHL’s longest winning streaks, the teams behind them, and why the Penguins’ mark endures. All figures are as of the 2025 season.

The record holder: the 1992-93 Penguins and 17 straight

The Penguins closed the 1992-93 season on a remarkable tear, reeling off 17 wins in a row to finish as the league’s top team and claim the Presidents’ Trophy. Lemieux returned from a health scare mid-run and still produced at a historic rate, and the depth around him overwhelmed opponents night after night. The streak captured a team at the height of its powers.

The record’s durability is the striking part. In a modern league built for parity, no team has come closer than one game to matching it, which is why the 1992-93 Penguins remain the benchmark.

The full leaderboard of NHL winning streaks

The table below ranks the longest single-season winning streaks in NHL history.

Rank	Wins	Team	Season
1	17	Pittsburgh Penguins	1992-93
2	16	Columbus Blue Jackets	2016-17
3	15	New York Islanders	1981-82
4	14	Boston Bruins	1929-30
5	14	Washington Capitals	2009-10
6	13	Detroit Red Wings	1951-52
7	13	Boston Bruins	1970-71
8	13	Tampa Bay Lightning	2018-19

The top of the list spans eras, from the Original Six-era Bruins to modern powers like Columbus and Tampa Bay. Below these, several other franchises have recorded winning streaks of 13 games, underlining how a run of that length puts a team in exclusive company.

Columbus and the Islanders: the closest challengers

The 2016-17 Columbus Blue Jackets came within one win of the record, rattling off 16 straight during a breakout season, while the 1981-82 New York Islanders won 15 in a row in the middle of their dynasty run of four consecutive Stanley Cups. Both showed that even elite teams can fall just short of Pittsburgh’s mark. The Islanders’ championship pedigree features on our most Stanley Cups by a team leaderboard.

Winning streaks versus points streaks

It is worth separating winning streaks from longer unbeaten runs. The 2012-13 Chicago Blackhawks, for instance, opened the season with a lengthy points streak, but because some of those games ended in overtime or shootout losses, it does not count as a pure winning streak. The Penguins’ 17 are all outright wins, which is what makes the record so hard to reach. The stars who drive these runs appear on our most points in NHL history list.

Why the record matters

A long winning streak measures sustained, flawless team performance in a sport where any single game can slip away. The 1992-93 Penguins combined a superstar core with genuine depth to produce a run no one has matched in over 30 years. For the basketball equivalent, see our leaderboard on the longest winning streak in the NBA.

The short version: the 1992-93 Pittsburgh Penguins hold the NHL record with 17 consecutive wins, ahead of the 2016-17 Columbus Blue Jackets (16) and the 1981-82 New York Islanders (15). As of the 2025 season, no team has come within a single game of the record.