Can we see Orr's adjusted numbers versus some better competition? Maybe Coffey, Bourque, Macinnis and Housley or something? The same way you did an in depth for Lidstrom Blake Pronger and Niedermayer. Orr will still dominate but I'd like to see how he rates versus some of the best offensive defenseman.
Career Stats
Player|GP|G|A|Pts|PPG
Ray Bourque | 1,665 | 391 | 1055 | 1,447 | 0.87
Paul Coffey | 1,459 | 364 | 1,006 | 1,370 | 0.94
Al MacInnis | 1,453 | 346 | 874 | 1,219 | 0.84
Phil Housley | 1,542 | 328 | 836 | 1,164 | 0.75
Larry Murphy | 1,668 | 276 | 838 | 1,114 | 0.67
Brian Leetch | 1,244 | 269 | 784 | 1,053 | 0.85
Denis Potvin | 1,089 | 270 | 615 | 885 | 0.81
Bobby Orr | 700 | 265 | 610 | 875 | 1.25
Larry Robinson | 1,422 | 181 | 622 | 803 | 0.56
Brad Park | 1,154 | 194 | 590 | 784 | 0.68
King Clancy | 1,219 | 242 | 532 | 774 | 0.64
Eddie Shore | 974 | 185 | 471 | 656 | 0.67
Due to injuries, Orr will always rank lower than his competition on any list of career stats. However, what Orr accomplished in a short amount of time is staggering. He outscored Park and Clancy by more than 100 points, despite playing nearly 500 fewer games! Orr was equally productive as Potvin in 400 fewer games. Ray Bourque, the most productive defenseman ever, outscored Orr by 600 points, but it took him nearly 1,000 games to do so.
If you look on a per-game basis, the numbers aren't even close. Orr averaged 1.25 ppg (~103 points per season); nobody else even averaged 1 pgg. Orr's closest competition, Paul Coffey, is far behind with 0.94 ppg. This means that Orr outscores Coffey by an average of 25 points per 82-game season. The official NHL statistics indicate that Orr and Coffey are pretty close; the adjustmented stats show that Coffey's numbers are inflated (relative to Orr's) because the 80s and early 90s were so high-scoring.
Everybody else is so far behind, there's not much to say.
I've said many times that career stats and per-game stats are somewhat limited because they will be artificially increased or decreased depending on when a player retires. I think that what a player does in their prime counts the most; hence, I'll look at the average of the players' five best seasons.
Peak Goal-Scoring
Player|Goals
Bobby Orr | 36
Paul Coffey | 31
Al MacInnis | 25
Denis Potvin | 25
King Clancy | 24
Phil Housley | 24
Ray Bourque | 22
Eddie Shore | 22
Brian Leetch | 22
Larry Murphy | 20
Larry Robinson | 14
In terms of goal-scoring, it's not even close. Bobby Orr
averages more than 35 goals per season in his prime; only one other defenseman (Coffey) has scored more than 35 in a single season, and he only managed to do that once. Of the eleven 30-goal seasons in NHL history, Orr has five of them and Coffey has three.
Except for Robinson (who let Lapointe do most of the goal-scoring), all of these players were phenomenal goal-scorers. Yet, aside from Coffey, none of them are even close to Orr. Big Mac, the third-best goal-scorer on this list, is behind by nearly 50%.
Peak Playmaking
Player|Assists
Bobby Orr | 85
Paul Coffey | 70
Brian Leetch | 65
Ray Bourque | 61
King Clancy | 57
Phil Housley | 56
Al MacInnis | 55
Denis Potvin | 54
Eddie Shore | 51
Larry Murphy | 50
Larry Robinson | 49
A defenseman has scored 75+ adjusted assists seven times. Bobby Orr did it five times. Again, Orr leads this category by a wide margin, and only Coffey is remotely close.
Peak Scoring
Player|Points
Bobby Orr | 121
Paul Coffey | 101
Brian Leetch | 84
Ray Bourque | 81
Denis Potvin | 79
Al MacInnis | 79
King Clancy | 77
Phil Housley | 74
Eddie Shore | 70
Larry Murphy | 68
Larry Robinson | 63
Bobby Orr has
all five of the highest-scoring seasons from defensemen. Bobby Orr broke the 110-point barrier five times; no other defensemen, even Coffey, managed to score over 110 points even once.
Paul Coffey is clearly in second; after Orr has the five best seasons, Coffey has five of the next six best years. But, it's a very distant second-place finish; Coffey is 20 points offensively behind Orr and far back defensively.
Orr's lead over third place (nearly 50%) is staggering. Dominant, generational talents like Bourque and Potvin look insignificant in comparison to Orr. I feel like I'm repeating myself over and over, but no defenseman was even close to Bobby Orr.