Wikipedia:WikiProject Ice Hockey/NHL season pages format

This page provides a loose outline into articles of the various seasons of the National Hockey League.

Nomenclature
All articles should be named (year)–(year) NHL season. The base article uses a title with a ndash between the years. The first redirect article uses a hyphen between the years. A second redirect uses the full National Hockey League spelling, i.e., (year)-(year) National Hockey League season and uses the hyphen. For example: 1959–60 NHL season, 1959-60 NHL season and 1959-60 National Hockey League season. The ndash for the title is always made entering Alt+0150 on Windows machines (or similar code on other OS machines), and does not use the &amp;ndash; glyph. The use of ndash in the titles is to follow Wikipedia MOS guidelines.

Article sections
In each article, there should be a lead paragraph that states the ordinal number of the NHL season (eg. 1917-18 is the first NHL season). The champion of the year is also noted. Then, the sections follow. The basic rules of the Wiki MOS apply, that is, prose sections before sections of tables.

League business
This section describes all changes from the previous season, rules, salary cap, teams and the like.

Regular season
This section should have a header paragraph describing the various politics of the NHL during the regular season. It may include milestones, records, and other interesting information.


 * Regular season standings - the final standings for the season. It should be in a table that is relatively free of formatting.  The columns to be included are, in this order:
 * Team - Make a link to the team. However, do NOT link to the page of their current incarnation (eg. if you list Hartford Whalers, do not link to Carolina Hurricanes)
 * Games Played (GP)
 * Wins (W)
 * Losses (L)
 * Ties (T)
 * Overtime Losses (1999-2000 onwards only) (OTL)
 * Points (Pts)
 * Goals For (GF)
 * Goals Against (GA)
 * Penalties in minutes (PIM)

The standings are organized in the usual fashion, following the NHL tie-breakers at the time, if need be.

Playoffs
This section is often just a summary of the content in the Playoffs article for the season. The full details are in the Playoffs article for the season. This article should contain at least a summary of the series winners, a Finals section, and a Playoff bracket (table) last.

The series headers should be presented as (city name) vs. (city name) with the higher seed first. Note that the team name must be in full only if that team has a cross-town rival (Canadiens, Maroons, Americans, Islanders, or Rangers) at the time. The order of the series should be the highest seed first. For example, with the present playoff system, the title of the division in alphabetical order (i.e. Atlantic Division first then Metropolitan) shall have its respected division winner vs the one of the two wild card teams followed by the 2nd and 3rd seed in the division. Within conferences and divisions, present them in the order they are presented in the standings (typically Eastern/Wales first, followed by Western/Campbell).

Within each series section, you should have a bulleted list showing the date of the game, as well as the final score. It should be in the following format:
 * (date) - (away team) (score) (home team) (score)

Highlight in bold the winner of the game, and if the game went in to overtime, indicate how many overtimes were needed: (OT) for a single overtime, (2OT) for two overtimes, and so on. For the teams, only use the city name unless the team has a cross-town rival at the time (even if the cross-town rival did not make the playoffs, are playing in another series, or were earlier eliminated). As well, link the date to its proper page. A link to the team pages is generally not necessary. Examples:


 * April 1 - Calgary 9 Vancouver 8 (2OT)
 * April 2 - Montreal Maroons 1 Montreal Canadiens 2

Finally, at the end of the list, indicate the winner of the series, the type of the series, and the series score, all on an italicized line. Examples:


 * Montreal wins total-goals series 22 goals to 8
 * Calgary wins best-of-seven series 4 games to 3

Since the playoffs are all in one year, you should have a line that says "All dates in (year)". Prior to the 1925-26 season, you should also make a small detail about the PCHA/WCHL playoffs as well. Then, there should be a subsection listing each round of the playoffs, and in each subsection, a subsection containing the series.

NHL Awards
This section covers the awards and all-star teams named by the NHL.

Player statistics

 * Leading scorers - this section counts the top ten scorers and ties (by points) for the duration of the regular season. The columns to be included are, in this order:
 * Player - always make a link to the player article
 * Team - you don't have to link to the team if you don't want to
 * Games Played (GP)
 * Goals (G)
 * Assists (A)
 * Points (PTS)
 * Penalties in minutes (PIM)


 * Leading goaltenders - this section counts the top ten goaltenders and ties (by GAA) for the duration of the regular season. The columns to be included are, in this order:
 * Player - always make a link to the player article
 * Team - you don't have to link to the team if you don't want to
 * Games Played (GP)
 * Minutes Played (MINS)
 * Goals Against (GA)
 * Shutouts (SO)
 * Goals Against Average (GAA)

Debuts and Last Games
Two different sections on the season page for players who made their debut and players who played their last game in that season. Players listed have to meet at least one of these notability guidelines:
 * Is a member of the Hockey Hall of Fame
 * Scored at least 400 career goals, 600 career assists, 1,000 career points or played at least 1,000 career games, or garnered at least 3,000 career penalty minutes
 * Scored at least 50 goals or 100 points in any given season
 * Led the league in a major statistical category in one season or playoffs (Goals, Assists, Points (for defencemen, G/A/PTS for D-men), Wins, GAA, Save Percentage) or led multiple times in a minor one (i.e. Yanic Perreault's reign as faceoff leader or Dave Schultz winning four PIM crowns)
 * Won a major award (Art Ross, Hart, Calder, Vezina, Selke, Byng, Norris, Jack Adams, Pearson, Smythe etc.)
 * Played in Multiple all-star games... or was named to the First or Second Post-Season All-Star team (there are many players who played in one token all-star game (ie. Garth Butcher) who are not notable, if you do it twice that means you must have had some importance)
 * Was the #1 overall draft pick
 * Holds a notable record (i.e. Mike Sillinger, most teams played for in a career)
 * For Goalies, won 250 games
 * Has had his number retired by an organization
 * If the player died during his last season, mentioned in the last games section only of his last season (unless he was notable for a reason above, he shouldn't be mentioned in the first games section)
 * Was a team captain with the same team for at least five seasons.
 * Is notable for some other major identifiable reason, used very rarely (i.e. Yutaka Fukufuji being the first Japanese-born NHL player)

Navigation
At the foot of the page, the NHL seasons template links to the previous and next season. The infobox also has links to the previous and next seasons.

Infobox
The infobox lists:
 * duration of the season, the number of teams and number of games
 * regular season champion, MVP and top scorer
 * playoffs champions, playoff MVP
 * Stanley Cup champion and runner-up.

Optional Sections
A page may optionally list the following:
 * link to all-star game page
 * playoff leading scorers
 * playoff leading goaltenders
 * leaders in other statistical categories

You shouldn't need the Wales Trophy or the Campbell Bowl to be listed when they were presented to the playoff champions, or the O'Brien when it was presented as NHL champion - those can be inferred from the playoff results. They are listed in the infobox.

If you choose to list playoff leading scorers and goaltenders, list them in the same fashion as the regular season ones. This detail should not be included if there is a playoffs article for the year.