From the 2017–18 season to the 2019–20 season, the NHL consisted of 31 teams—24 based in the United States and seven in Canada. The NHL divided the 31 teams into two conferences: the Eastern Conference and the Western Conference. Each conference was split into two divisions: the Eastern Conference contained 16 teams (eight per division), while the Western Conference had 15 teams (seven in the Central and eight in the Pacific). Wikipedia