Bill Mikkelson Posted -82 Plus/Minus During 1974-75 Season

Published on May 8th, 2023 7:20 pm EST
Written By: Dave Manuel


During the 1974-75 regular season, Bill Mikkelson of the Washington Capitals entered the record books by posting a -82 plus/minus over the course of a single season.

Given the parity in the NHL and the overall talent in the league, this is a record that will probably never be broken.

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In order to post a -82 plus/minus, you need to be playing for a team that is tragically terrible, and the 1974-75 Washington Capitals certainly qualified in that regard.

The Capitals were the NHL's worst team (by far), posting a record of 8-67-5.

The Capitals allowed 446 goals over the course of the season, meaning that they gave up an average of 5.57 goals per game.

No other team in the league was even close in this regard.

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There were some unbelievably bad plus/minus numbers on the Capitals that year.

Jack Lynch played just 20 games but still posted a plus/minus of -54.

Greg Joly played 44 games but still posted a plus/minus of -69.

Bill Mikkelson, however, led the way with a plus/minus of -82.

This ugly number came over the course of just 59 games - if Mikkelson had played an entire 80 game season, he would have ended with a plus/minus of -111.

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Mikkelson played four seasons in the league, finishing with a career plus/minus of -146 over the course of just 147 games.

After his terrible year in 1974-75, Mikkelson would play just one more game in 1976-77 before disappearing from the NHL forever.

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Mikkelson had three games where he posted a -5 plus/minus, and these three games came within three weeks of each other.

As we said - this is a record that probably never gets broken.