NHL Records That Will Never Be Broken
Across its 108-year history, the NHL has seen many supremely talented skaters and goaltenders take the league by storm. Some changed the game as we know it, while others were primed for tremendous success in their era.
With each new generation of players, we get more competitors who eye up a place in the record books. Some NHL records would seem to be in reach, particularly era-specific ones like within the Salary Cap Era; others are unbreakable.
Here, we’re charting the NHL records that will never be broken, how they were achieved, and why they’ll remain indefinitely as the pinnacle of that particular stat line.
Offensive NHL Records
Anyone with even a fleeting knowledge of the NHL will know that the offensive chapters of the NHL record book are dominated by one name: Wayne Gretzky. Quite rightly hailed as “The Great One,” Gretzky ended his career with over 60 records – the majority of which stand to this day. Still, we do have room for one other entrant here.
Wayne Gretzky’s Career Points
Wayne Gretzky’s career points record, which only factors his regular season NHL scoring and not his playoff tallies, is simply too massive to beat. In 1,487 games over 20 seasons in the NHL, Gretzky put up 2,857 points. For context, each of the next four players in the chart for this record needed over 1,700 games and didn’t make it to 2,000 points.
Jaromír Jágr, Mark Messier, Gordie Howe, and Ron Francis played between 1,731 and 1,767 games to tally between 1,798 and 1,921 points. Messier was a teammate for Gretzky in The Great One’s prime and at a time of high scoring in the NHL, but fell just over 1,000 points short of his former Edmonton Oilers pal in the end.
What’s perhaps most impressive about the record is the rate of scoring, and it’s through this calculation that you can see the divide between Gretzky and even would-be contenders to his throne. He averaged 1.92 points per game. Mario Lemieux, whose career was hampered by health issues, averaged 1.88 in his 915 games to hit 1,723 points.
In the NHL now, all eyes would be on Connor McDavid to emulate the scoring of Gretzky or, at least, set a new modern standard. Still only 28 years old and a constant favourite for point scoring props in the NHL betting, McDavid’s unprecedented 1,082 points in 712 games to date is an average of 1.52 points per game.
Wayne Gretzky’s Career Assists
There was a time when Wayne Gretzky’s career goals NHL record looked to be unbeatable at 894, but in 2024/25, Alex Ovechkin crossed the line with his 895th goal in his 1,487th game. Gretzky’s last goal came on his 1,479th game played, but he did retire having played 1,487 games.
For some, this would offer hope that his career assists record could be defeated, but such hope would be folly.
Gretzky secured 1,963 assists across his career, which puts him 714 ahead of the next-best, Ron Francis. On the goals tally, Gretzky’s former record was only ahead of Gordie Howe by 93 and Jágr by 128 – still a huge gap, but not quite as massive.
Again, turning to the average can help to show how far this puts Gretzky’s tally ahead. He’d average 1.32 assists per game. Lemieux was teeing up his linemates at a rate of 1.13 assists per game. Now, McDavid is getting 1.01 assists per game. It’s an impressive rate in the modern game that makes him a favourite in the hockey lines each game to do so, but it’s far from a record-setting pace.
Wayne Gretzky’s Single-Season Points
As the perfect display of the sheer level that Gretzky played at throughout his career, of the top 11 entries to the NHL record for the most points in a single season, “Wayne Gretzky” marks nine of them, including the top four. Mario Lemieux’s tallies of 199 points in 1988/89 and 168 points in 1987/88 break up the Gretzky scroll.
Standing at the top of the pile is Gretzky’s 1985/86 outing. In 80 games, he scored 52 goals and 215 points. It was a marked improvement on his previous record set in 1981/82. That season, he was far more relied upon for scoring, with him putting away 92 goals and 212 points.
You have to scroll down to 14th on the list to reach a player not called Gretzky or Lemieux, with that star being Steve Yzerman in 1988/89. Next, however, is Connor McDavid with 153 points in the 82 games of 2022/23.
It’s a superb tally, but still 55 short. It’s indicative of the reduction in scoring in the NHL, which saw an average of 4.01 goals per game in 1981/82 but only 3.14 (the peak from 1996/97 to 2024/25) in 2022/23.
Wayne Gretzky’s Single-Season Assists
When it comes to the NHL record for single-season assists, Gretzky is even more dominant.
He owns 11 of the top 13 spots here, only broken up by Mario Lemieux in ninth and Bobby Orr in 12th, with Orr’s total being tied to make the cut.
That range of single-season assists records starts with Gretzky’s absurd 163-assist haul in 1985/86 and ends with him and Orr tied at 102 to round out the top 13 spots. The 2023/24 season did produce the next two in the list, with McDavid and Nikita Kucherov tallying 100 assists. Then, of the top 35, only a couple of outings from “Jumbo” Joe Thornton even come close to their efforts, let alone Gretzky’s.
Joe Malone’s Goals in a Single Game
In 1920 and 1921, five of the top eight entries for the most goals in an NHL game record were made. Seven of those entries tally six goals, but sitting above them all is Joe Malone’s seven-goal outing in January 1920. In this game, Malone and the 1-10 Québec Bulldogs met the 5-6 Toronto St Patricks.
The midseason game turned out to be a barnburner. It ended 10-6 to the Bulldogs in Québec City, with Malone being the difference-maker. That season (1919/20), an average of 4.79 goals per game were scored, which remains the highest rate of scoring in NHL history, further emphasizing the unbeatable nature of this NHL record.
Defensive NHL Records
Players on the blueline weren’t traditionally relied upon to stuff the stat box, with their output being much more selfless than that of the forwards.
Then came Bobby Orr to change the game. Combining slick skating, defensive know-how, and offensive flair, the blueliner set a new bar for positional records and set a bar even Gretzky couldn’t beat.
Bobby Orr’s Single-Season Plus/Minus
The plus/minus system has long been a focus of quite a heated debate. How much it truly relays about a player’s ability is usually the point of contention, as well as how much weight it should hold.
Yet, the premise is very simple: if you’re on the ice when your team scores, you get a plus, and you get a minus if you concede a goal while you’re on the ice or in the penalty box."
The premise is generally simple: you get a 'plus' if you are on the ice when your team scores at even strength or while shorthanded. You get a 'minus' if you are on the ice when your opponent scores in those same situations. Importantly, goals scored during power plays don't count against the defenders' plus/minus, making Orr's +124 even more absurd—he wasn't just surviving; he was dominating 5-on-5 play.
On the face of it, then, a player’s efforts beyond goals, assists, and points are recorded by the plus/minus. When looking at the NHL record for this stat line, the importance of certain players across the ice seemingly becomes emphasized. This is particularly true of legendary defensemen.
Top of the list is Bobby Orr. At just 22 years old in the 1970/71 season, the blueliner put up a +124 plus/minus, much of which was buoyed by his offensive output of 139 points. He also served 91 penalty minutes, which would have reeled in that gaudy plus/minus. It’s a showcase of his dominance with or without the puck.
The best plus/minus that The Great One ever tallied was +100. It’s a mightily impressive score, but was achieved having scored 208 points – having been on the ice for at least 208 goals for his team. With only 52 penalty minutes that season, not a huge amount would have been shaved off of that tally, either.
Even the otherworldly offensive output of Wayne Gretzky in his era couldn’t match the plus-generating play of the ultimate two-way defenseman. By comparison, the closest a modern play – anyone who’s taken to the ice since 2000 – has come is Johnny Gaudreau with a +64 in 2021/22.
Goaltending Records
NHL goaltenders have among the toughest jobs in sports. Of over 30 high-speed or awkward-angled shots flung on net across 60 minutes, they’re expected to stop all but two or maybe three of these 3x1’’ pucks to have a good day in goal.
Pads had become smaller, knowledge of health and fitness had become sharper, and offensive skill across the lines had increased. All of this helps to make some of the older goaltending records simply unbeatable.
Glenn Hall’s Consecutive Games Played by a Goaltender
Calder Trophy and three-time Vezina Trophy winner Glenn Hall became famous for his marathon stint in goal that underpinned his continued success on the ice. From the start of the 1955/56 season, with the Detroit Red Wings, he played 552 consecutive games, including in the playoffs, through to the early stages of the 1962/63 season with the Chicago Black Hawks.
In this age of helmetless goaltenders, the butterfly style pioneer wasn’t unique in being a team’s only starting goaltender, but his longevity in the crease far outshone his peers. Given what is known now regarding health and fitness, particularly for goalies, the NHL will never again see a netminder go on such a streak of consecutive games.
George Hainsworth’s Shutouts in a Season
The late 1920s were the culmination of a sweeping and somewhat sudden wave of changes that brought in new rules, goaltending advancements, and a focus on the defensive side of the game. As a result, the average goals per game that was 4.79 in 1919/20 plummeted to an all-time low of 1.46 by 1928/29.
Not to besmirch the effort, of course, but it was in this season that the Montréal Canadiens netminder George Hainsworth set the record for the most shutouts in a single season. He recorded 22 shutouts that year, which is seven more than each of his late-1920s peers who also landed among the top spots for this NHL record.
Rather impressively, the 22 shutouts were logged over a relatively – by today’s standards – small sample. He’d secure a shutout in every other game by the end of his 44-game season, finishing with a 22-7-15 record. The only goalie to come close in somewhat recent times is Tony Esposito’s 15 shutout tally in 1969/70.