Everyone always talks about Gretzky's records and they will never be beat(until now) but how about two other records that I can 100% guarantee no one will ever beat?
Tiger Williams 3971 Penalty minutes all-time
Dave Schutz 472 penalty minutes in a single season
Is it safe to say these will never be beat? Is there even a point to talk about it? Perhaps dubious records but these two are a lock to never be beat.
472 penalty minutes in a single season seems doable to me, especially with some potential rule changes to penalties. It would take a couple of flukes for it to happen maybe (ie, major incidents, etc), but I don't think it's necessary impossible.
3971 is a lot, but again rule changes to change penalties doesn't seem that far fetched. Maybe more 5 & 10 minute penalties - who knows that they don't introduce a 20 or 30 minute penalty in future, or that they don't start counting game misconducts as "60 minutes".
Seems like it would be pretty tough for Bud Kudelski and Jimmy Carson’s shared record of 86 games played in a season to be broken.
Again, no. Very easy for NHL to bump schedule up to 84, and eventually 86+ games in a year. I thought I heard a rumor they might go to 84 next year, or soon? 86 will eventually be matched/fall.
Patrick Roy's 151 playoff wins
Again disagree on this one. If nothing else - with NHL constantly growing, it's likely we expand the playoff format soon. Instead of 4 rounds, 5 rounds, maybe a play-in, etc. I think in the next ~20-30 years, we'll be seeing more playoff wins easier to accumulate, and this will fall.
I don't think 10 points in a single game will be beat, at least not in our lifetimes.
10 is a really high number, obviously. But - it's also just random luck. It may not fall for 100 years, but Auston Matthews could score 11 this week. Or Pastrnak. Or Bedard. Or - anyone, is my point.
It's much easier to have a fluke over one game, than many.
I agree with poster #2 on this thread. The one record that seems completely untouchable is Glenn Hall playing in 502 consecutive games as a goalie. I can't imagine we'll ever see a goalie play all 82 games in a season, let alone ~6-7 years in a row.
As for OP - Gretzky has 2 records that to me seem more unbeatable than most, that would rank very high on a list of "most unbeatable records":
163 assists in a single season. No one has ever come remotely close, and I don't see any realistic scenario where that changes in next ~50 years. Maybe a player more talented than Gretzky comes by in a perfect storm of an even higher scoring era than Gretzky's, and beats it, but seems extremely unlikely.
1963 career assists. As of one year ago - (McDavid & Kucherov each scored exactly 100 assists last year) - only twice in history had a player other than Gretzky surpassed 100 assists in a season (Lemieux 114 in 89, Orr 102 in 71). For 1963 assists to fall - a player would have to not just top 100 assists in a single season once, but rather do so 19 seasons in a row - and then still come back for a 20th season and score 64 assists. It's a mind boggling career total from Gretzky, that won't be beat.
Gretzky's point records (2857 career, 215 single season) are also up there in difficulty, but they're both more beatable than the assist numbers to me.