Bobby Orr: +124

OK, so not everyone values the plus-minus stat the same way, and many would do away with it altogether as a tool to measure a player’s ability or impact. That’s fine. But even still, when you stack up Orr’s number in 1970-71 to almost anyone else’s (including even his own in any other year of his career) in recorded history, his performance that season shines among the all-time best. Orr posted the insanely high mark in 1970-71, the year he won his second Hart Trophy. Six years later, Larry Robinson became the only player to ever challenge the mark when he finished with a plus-120 rating on an all-time best Canadiens team that finished with a 60–8–12 record. To give you an idea of how unattainable that mark is in today’s NHL, the best plus-minus posted by any player in the salary cap era is plus-50 by Jeff Schultz on the high-scoring 2009-10 Washington Capitals. Plus-40 has only been reached seven other times in the past 13 years.