Where the schedule helps — and where it bites
The headline cards and ranking are calculated from all 1,344 regular-season games. Click any team to open its full breakdown.
Overall Schedule Grade — All 32 Teams
Weighted percentiles: back-to-backs 22.5%, compression 22.5%, travel 18%, road balance 15%, late season 12%, early season 10%. Every overlapping 3-in-4, 4-in-6 and 5-in-8 window is included.
Full Rankings
Filter by conference or division, search by team, and click a column header to sort. Click a team row for the comparison view.
| Rank | Team | Grade | Score | B2Bs | 3-in-4 | 4-in-6 | 5-in-8 | Comp. index | Miles | TZ hrs | Rest net | Road trip | Weekend home |
|---|
League Charts
Switch the ranking metric, then use the travel-versus-back-to-back map to find teams with stacked logistical burdens.
Travel vs. back-to-backs
Upper-right is the toughest combination. Dashed lines show league medians.
Category leaderboards
League Schedule Density
Select a month and date to inspect the slate. Color intensity reflects the number of games scheduled that day.
Special Events & League Milestones
Team Comparison
Compare the structure score, workload, travel, rest profile and month-by-month shape. The schedule table below follows Team A.
Why the grades differ
Key Metrics
Team A Schedule
| Date | Opponent | H/A | Time | Rest | Opp rest | Rest diff | Travel leg | Venue | Flags |
|---|
Methodology & Sources
Every ranking depends on definitions. This section makes the calculation reproducible and separates measured logistics from interpretation.
Structure-score weights
Each raw burden is converted to an ease percentile across the 32 teams. The weighted score is therefore relative to this season’s schedule. Letter grades are rank bands, with two teams in A+ and two in D−.
Metric definitions
- Back-to-back: games on consecutive calendar dates.
- Compression: every overlapping 3-in-4, 4-in-6 and 5-in-8 window counts. Compression index = 1.0×(3-in-4) + 1.5×(4-in-6) + 0.5×(5-in-8).
- Rest net: games with more off-days than the opponent minus games with fewer, excluding either club’s opener.
- Road balance: a composite of longest road trip, maximum road games in any 30-day window and road-heavy months.
- Early: opening night through Nov. 30. Late: Mar. 1 through Apr. 10.
Travel model
Estimated miles are great-circle distances between consecutive game venues, starting at the club’s home arena and returning home after the final game. Helsinki, Dusseldorf and outdoor-game venues are explicitly included.
The model does not know actual charter routes, airport positioning, weather diversions, practice locations or whether a team chooses to return home during a long break. Treat miles as a consistent schedule estimate, not an operations log.
Primary sources
NHL: 2026-27 regular-season schedule release
NHL: official team-by-team schedule PDF
Reference dashboard: 2025-26 schedule structure analysis
The game dataset was deduplicated from all 32 team schedules and validated at 1,344 unique games, 84 per team, 42 home and 42 away.
Important interpretation
This is not a strength-of-schedule model. It does not project standings, injuries, lineup quality or opponent performance. A difficult structure can be overcome, and an easy structure does not guarantee results.
Downloadable audit files
The project folder includes CSV and JSON files for every game, each team’s metrics and every team-game row. The dashboard itself is a single self-contained HTML file and can be hosted on any static site service.